Opener of the Way
by AxeO'War
Summary: The world is in turmoil, endless war ravaging the planet. Kaiju roam about with Gods and Demons clashing over realms of mortals. Divine powers, advanced technology and kaiju of brute strength come to an epic clash in the Holy Land as the world struggles to find its lost sanity.
1. Chapter 1: Awakening

**(Author's note: To all readers of this story, I am currently doing a massive retconning and rewriting of certain chapters that I found to be lacking in interest and substances. In addition, I am also rerailing the story's continuity and characters in line with my new Godzilla trilogy fics after I was kicked out of the GRC by the no good lying, Evangelion loving jerkwad group leader Xen.)**

Chapter 1: Awakening

It was late at night with the cold air gripping his body like the mistress's hands on his shoulders. The air and atmosphere of an evening chill burden his shoulders like an unrelenting wife, refusing to let go of her husband, whom she married with half hearted effort.

True to his nature, silent as the wind was his modus operandi as he strolled about in the streets of Rome dead at night. Hood over his head and paw padded feet kicking up the grimes, dirt and rocks of Rome's marbled stone streets.

As the Romans slept, he made a dash to the wall of the nearby building and traverse his way up to its roof. Kicking himself up in the air with a feet being used as a launchpad to propel him into the air.

This of course continued until he landed on his feet on the roof of an apartment building overlooking the Arco di Costantino. The wind blew over his shoulders, lifting the hood slightly off, revealing his two pointy ears and the jet black color of his armor.

Anubis was on a hunt, not for an enemy but for something of value to him. He leapt over from the Arc to the streets below and sprint up the earthen gorge to the massive marble stone building compound in front of him.

The moment he got in front of the compound, he saw a massive limestone statue of an emperor in toga and breast plate, pointing out in focal point with his right index finger. This emperor was a rather tall and muscular figure, like a colossus even for Romans.

Anubis sighed out seeing the statue and all the Roman's signature elaborate painting work to capture the statue's lifelike texture, only to have it ended up being rather off putting by the color mix.

The jackal deity then crouched down and snuck into the nearest hedge and avoided the Praetorian Guards roaming about, two of whom were seen guarding the entrance with their signature Scutum shields and Gladius swords.

They wore the ceremonial uniform and armor of the Praetorian Guards but Anubis could tell that these were much less intricate in design and showing less of Roman artistic crafts than their ancestors.

"People should know when they're conquered." Anubis muttered as he traversed up the pillar to the top of the entrance arc. "These guards are sloppy tonight, this should be easier a bit." He mused on the Praetorian Guards, scratching his chin as he examined their body languages.

The Jackal deity himself, now a robot with enhanced physical prowess was able to make a quick dash towards the edge of the arc and jumped over to the next arc gate leading into the courtyard's garden. He sprinted as fast as he could towards the massive Mausoleum in the heart of the compound.

The Mausoleum itself had a plaque on its entrance with torches highlighting its name inscribed in Latin, "Marci Mausoleo Lenox - Romae salvator". A name all too familiar for Anubis by this point.

The jackal deity vaulted over the plaque and sprint towards the Mausoleum's gate only to find that it was locked up tight at night. Anubis skirted to a halt in front of the door and groaned in frustration seeing this. "Damn it, time to find an alternate entrance." Anubis muttered to himself before looking up at the roof of the Mausoleum, seeing the small slits between the column pillars and the roof itself.

He then planted his feet on the pillar and began to take a running start on the surface of the pillar as he scaled the Mausoleum's verticality. Once he had arrived at the slit, the robot jackal slowly crawled through the small space before dropping down on the floor. He let out a huff as his feet made contact with the ground making a clanking sound. Knowing that his time was short, Anubis had to finish what he had started.

"Ignosce me, Charissimi imperatoris. There is something I require your help with." Said Anubis in Latin as he approached the massive stone sarcophagus with elaborate Roman carving and sculptures.

The sides of the sarcophagus showed great events of the Emperor's life, starting from his humble beginning as a Legionnaire like countless others serving Rome's interest. His campaigns in the Gaul and Germania and the eventual great struggle Anubis and Lenox waged against one another.

"Requiescet in pace." Anubis uttered as he knelt down before the Sarcophagus, the floor itself was littered with petals of flowers to honor the late emperor with candles and torches around the place to hold him in the highest honor possible in Rome. Anubis then placed a box in front of the sarcophagus and opened its lid gently.

The box itself was a small purple dyed container with elaborate decors no doubt coming from Persia or Greece. The box itself sported the decor and motifs of wolves guarding a wreath in the center of the lid, the interior of the box glew a greenish light as it sooned shoned out of the slits. The guards outside as they were patrolling the Mausoleum were suddenly caught by the sight of the greenish light within the Mausoleum and were alarmed.

"Erecti! Nos autem sub impetu!" One of the Praetorians shouted to his fellow guards as they began to converge on the Mausoleum to lay siege to it. "I thought this was the cushy job of the empire!" One of the Praetorian complain as he ran towards the entrance of the Mausoleum.

The troops there stacked up into Mobile Testudo formation with their shields assembled into a wedge ready to push in. "Damn it, I need to get this done." Anubis snarled to himself as the box was finally doing its job. He saw from within the Sarcophagus, a flaming orb of the Emperor Marcus Lenox rose up and spark its brilliant glow to Anubis's eyes.

This was what he was looking for, as he held it in his hands, he can see that Lenox had led a magnanimous life, an honorable existence perhaps devoted to the well being of Rome in Anubis's absence from his home world.

"Forgive me for disturbing your rest in Elysium. But this old dog need your help the most." Said Anubis as he cautiously uttered his incantation to the soul of the dead. The orb would then sprung around the room, floating about directionless as Anubis uttered his incantations, guiding the soul of the dead's pieces back together from within the Sarcophagus. He then placed the soul into the box he had with him and closed the lid.

But once he picked it up, the Praetorians have broken down the doors and only caught a glimpse of his hooded figure in the shadow. His silhouette gave them very little idea of who he was and why was he here, they opted to assume the worst and immediately prepare to tackle him. "My work is done." Said Anubis as he dropped a smoke bomb on the floor, creating a plume of smoke covering his exit.

As the Praetorians grunted in surprise, coughing out loud with hazy eyes trying to search for Anubis in the tight confine of the Mausoleum. But once the smoke had died down, Anubis was gone, disappeared without a trace. Leaving behind in his wake some chemical residues of the smoke bomb for their alchemists to work on.

[hr]

Far from Rome the Eternal Capital of the Roman Empire and its vestiges, Anubis was now home in Egypt. Though it was his home, he now felt more like an alien walking around on the sands of Egypt despite how familiar he was with the country.

Anubis was sitting on the back of his beloved horse Ramiel as the two rode on the now paved roads of Alexandria towards the South Eastern part of the city, namely Fort Akra of the city, Headquarters of the much vaunted Jackal Guards.

The sight of the high walls, moat and drawbridge and the banner of the Jackal Guards showing a silhouette of Anubis Jackal holding a knife in its mouth skulking ominously at its enemies remind others not to mess with them.

When Anubis entered the camp, the more historical and ancient entrance betrayed the Fort's increasingly modern infrastructure and the Jackal Guards modernization effort due to the fact that his army was considered the elite cream of the Egyptian Military proverbial crop.

Within the compound's courtyard and various store houses were now being used to stockpile firearms of various kinds, ammunitions were safely locked inside the armory with various motorized vehicles being kept inside a garage once used as a stable.

Anubis dismounted from Ramiel's back before petting his horse's head gently, he whispered to Ramiel softly before ushering him off to the last stable available in the Fort, one dedicated to his pampering. Anubis in turn went inside a Workshop, where he tinkers and works tirelessly on the various idea of robot models, chassis and frames. Within the workshop, Anubis had a large cylindrical tube with various wires inside it attaching to what appeared to be a robot wolf of anthropomorphic design.

The robot itself was sporting a chrome grey color for its armor, reminiscing of the common grey wolves mostly found in Hellas, Italia, Gaul, Germania and the Scandinavia. The deity himself was working on a computer panel connected to the robot chassis as he danced his fingers across the keyboards programming the AI of the robot. The programming appeared to have various photos, PDF files, videos and countless knowledges of more than 2000 years of Warfare evolution. As the programming phase was coming to a finish, Anubis opened the box he had on his left, letting the soul inside levitating out of the box.

He had both hands holding the soul and moved it to the robot chassis, once he was over the chassis the soul flew out of his hands and slammed into the left side of the robot torso's breastplate, where the heart was. This was the moment when Anubis waited for the robot to begin its booting process and gain consciousness.

Shortly after Anubis placed his hand down on the cold chest of the robot body he felt a very faint and very quiet "thump." It was an indicator to him something was coming back to life. A mechanical heart beat. A while after this other parts of the body seemed to begin twitching and activating. Synthetic robotized muscles springing to life twitching before it all came down to the fingers of the robot's right hand starting to squeeze inwards in a minor twitch.

Anubis lifted his hands up and squeezed his palms in and relax it out repeatedly to check the flexibility of his palm as the robot came to life. Before him the robot was a rather bulky and tank like one, but still retain an agile athletic look that was much needed in combat.

The robot's HUD was booting up with a red tinted LED light as his optics flashed up, the HUD began to display various 0s and 1s digits and computer codes programmed into him. Various functions were soon displayed with the bottom of the HUD was a compass indicating directions and the top being a bearing system for him.

The bottom right corner was a mood display to indicate present emotions and the bottom left was a condition indicator to show him the conditions of his body and the components. Anubis at this point was seen standing in front of the robot, mere inches away as leaned in to ask it. "How are you doing, Caesar? Take a moment to collect yourself, there's much to be done."

The robot sat up and immediately let out a very metallic sounding booming grumble. The grumble transformed itself into a much longer groan though with the low booming pitch coming out rather gravely and much like a radio transmission.

The less cognitive words turned into structured and well formatted sentences finally as the robot looked up at Anubis confused for moment. "Wh- where… am I?... this isn't. Who?..." the robot of course spoke using a more metallic sounding version of Imperator Lenox's voice. Its mind though seemingly broken and confused.

"Easy now, take a deep breath, you can still do that. It will help you calm down." Said Anubis with a hand placed on the robot's shoulder, the robot wolf hearing this was confused even more but felt compelled to do as Anubis said.

He inhaled for a good 30 seconds, then exhaled, feeling that he was more calm now than before, however this action caused his HUD to begin to display a series of information in the form of pop ups boxes on the sides showing the chemical compounds he had inhaled in exquisitely detailed information. "There you go, that should help you. Now then, some basic information, welcome back to the plain of the livings. You're in Alexandria now in Fort Akra." Said Anubis in a calm and relaxed tone.

The robot himself would feel that his body still had numerous wires and cables attached to him, one on the back of his head feeling like it was prodding at his brains and mind. The other wire was embarrassingly enough, attached to his tail hole, a buttplug by design and he felt that it was feeding energy into the reactor built into his body.

The robot grunted out in an alarmed jolt feeling its anal passage intruded on by a massive cord. Each of Lenox's fingers convulse inwards in a clutch grip confused and shaken up. "What are you?! Stop! I don't know anything… Your voice. Did you- have we even met each other's presence before? I can't remember anything…" The robot Lenox seems to plead.

Much to his comfort and relief, he felt Anubis's hand on his shoulder as the Jackal deity was seen patting him gently. "Fear not. We've met before, 2000 years ago, perhaps this name may jog your memory a bit. Emperor Marcus Lenox of Rome." Anubis uttered gently.

With the name kicking up his memories, 2000 years of memories came flooding back to him showing his Legionnaire career in Dalmatia, serving as Legatus in Gaul and Germania, the epic showdown of the Roman-Egyptian War and his encounter with Anubis the God of the Dead.

The flashbacks caused his vision to glitch and haze with images of vivid memories come flooding back like a tidal wave before subsiding. He was soon left with the sight of Anubis, a robot jackal at this point from top to bottom. "Not the most pleasant of experiences I'm afraid, but you'll weather the worst of it. Tea, Imperator?" Anubis offered him a cup of tea smelling as sweet as the lotus of the Nile.

It was possibly the best choice for Lenox to take currently given his state of mind. Everything seems new and surreal to him. Dead at one point, and the next brought back to life as a robot wolf. Then it hit him. This wasn't his body. Not his former human one. He snapped his gaze to one of his robotic arms confused on the technology at work. Or in his case the sorcery this was never seeing electrics up until this point. Only the programing in his mind started to take into effect. Visions of how much warfare has changed on 2000 years flew by in a blink. "Automated?... I need a mirror. Something to reflect my image back at me… I- I need to think. Please give me the tea Anubis…" Lenox said in a down voice as his revelation hit him.

Anubis nodded to Lenox as he snapped his finger, the wire on the back of Lenox's head detached from him, leaving his mind free to contemplate and comprehend the information that was given to him.

The cable on his tail hole retracted from him, giving him a moment of pleasured moan that he thought he wouldn't have made in all his lifetime. A rather embarrassing thought for him for a moment. "Right this way." Anubis motioned for him to walk with him through a doorway into a room where there was a 9 square tiles pad with mechanical arms around the pad. In front of him was a mirror showing his full appearance.

He was now a robot wolf walking on two legs like human, his body's overall design was Herculean physique like the legendary hero namesake, a perfect and idealized visage of physical perfection of a warrior like in Greek cuirass designs for his torso and abdomen sporting rolling muscles. His arms and legs appeared to have rather impressive rolls of muscle designs that contract and hardened as he raised and lowered his arms. The six packs on his abdomen area were covered in a smooth chrome armor plate with a stubby metal tail behind him. He was still a dull gray however, not quite sporting any colors of interest.

Lenox looked at the mirror almost dumbfounded, but still curious. He rose his right arm up and opened up the palm of his hand. After this he inched his arm closer until he could rest his palm down on the cold yet smooth surface of the mirror. Looking at himself he was in a godly state of body condition being built to near perfection yet it all still seemed off to him. He may have the ideal strength and manliness of Herakles but it didn't look human to him.

"You turned me into the symbol of Rome. The wolf which could be thanked to the start of the empire… For restoring my life to me I should thank you especially in this form. But I don't know what to really think of this. I was resting. Death on a bed with those I knew around me before I left the world. And why the body of a wolf at that? An anthropomorphic one." Lenox asked.

Anubis approached him and cleared his throat out as he spoke to Lenox in a relaxed tone. "Simple, you see in recent years I have come across some rather dangerous foes that require me to think outside the box. One of them was a group fostered by a… shall we say… distant descendant of yours have grown to be a dangerous terrorist faction that not only backstabbed him but are also are armed with a large stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. They even managed to elude me and gave me a bad case of burial under a pile of rubble. So to take them down I'll need your help." Said Anubis.

Anubis then handed Lenox what appeared to be a tablet, a rectangular computer with no keyboards and to Lenox, it appeared that the device was showing him a photograph as his HUD identified, the photograph displayed a man similar to Lenox in an uncanny manner, though his appearance was obviously Germanic with pale white skin tone and a hairstyle that Lenox had never seen before in Rome. "This is the man, a rather long story and need time to burn through the information but once you do, you should be up to speed with the situation."

More information was unloaded onto Lenox without much information, and yet the device he was holding bearded something similar to him despite never seen anything like it in his previous life. Now one of the first pieces of hand held text in his new life he began to scroll through the data of his apparent descendant. He felt no familial connection or bond to the man. Not yet anyways, but it was alarming to read the data.

He found the man's last name to be exactly like his. Though with a major turn in it being "Lenox", "Walter" of an organization named Orion's Sword. Something that seems to depress Caesar Lenox. "This is where my heritage has led?..." he said depressed. Even more so finding Grey to be deceased already without a chance to reform himself, or rather, reform himself in the eyes of certain others. The written files displayed on his robot HUD outlined several key points included "Nuclear War instigated by China", "Orion Sword engages CENTCOM", "Death of Walter Lenox confirmed in Washington D.C".

He slumped a bit seeing this. A massive war, counted in seconds and yet already the participants were left in ruins. With his supposed descendant scrambling desperately for control to restore order. Sucking up world powers not for territory control or dominance, but to spread a forceful peace effort controlling and aligning governments alike. Traditions erased, no biased view, all governments of any kind attacked with the intents of saving human from the brink of self-inflicted destruction.

What didn't' make sense to him was the fact this did not occur in this place. As he read he found the lands his descendant "Grey" inhabited were far more modern and technologically superior to the ancient world somehow.

This all seems to have occurred in a very distant year of 2033. Just barely over the 2000 mark since Lenox left, but a world annexing more territory than the known world of ancient. United States, Russia, Great Britain, Japan, South America, Australia. All these names he barely understood the meaning of. "Where did this all transpire? He… Has a chaotic, but controlled view… This isn't like old Rome. This is with purpose. Passion filled. Maybe angry and destructive, but it wasn't for territory. What is this man?... And what is a Rex Unit?..." Lenox asked.

Anubis in his mind knew that Lenox's questions require answers, which in turn breed more questions than time would allow. He however knew that he must balance between informing Lenox and keep up with his enemies. "As a God I can elaborate to you, the events and history of these things take place in a realm of Titans and monsters tower over mountains. A place where deities like myself have little influences in the events taking place there. I'll get you up to speed further soon but for now we have things to do."

The statement left Lenox with more questions than contending answers, he saw Anubis gestured for him to stand on the middle of the pad. Seeing the hand gesture and directing of Anubis compelled him to follow suits as he stepped back on to the pad, he found his feet to still be somewhat awkward as he was more used to the human feet structure than a wolf's hind legs.

However, once he stepped on the pad, his answer came in the form the robot arms descending on him and spraying a crimson red paint color on his chest armor, and the armored loin piece over his lower region. The paint job that was being applied to him started on his wrists and shoulder plates, on his legs, the robot arms applied the similar paint job on his heels, on the edge of the primary paint jobs were wheat gold patterns and highlights.

On his torso, he saw that the robot arms gave his chest a crimson red color that seemed more widely spread out with a golden eagle of Rome painted on his heart. Some outer golden highlights were added on the borders of his armor making him seem regal. Where ever there was read a beveled gold border would soon be.

"There you go, a much more appropriate color for the former emperor of Rome." Said Anubis as the paint job was being dried up with fans blowing heat over his body, Lenox saw that the robot HUD he had was displaying a Thermometer graph in vertical scale.

The meter ran from 0 towards the more heated end of the spectrum until the fans stopped allowing him to step off the pad. He felt Anubis's hands lifting his left arm up, turning and inspecting it. "Hmmm I should get you trained on how to use your new body properly along with your new weapons and equipment, seeing that 2000 years have passed." Said Anubis.

Lenox nodded to Anubis, but still felt his mind curious now to everything that was happening around him. He looked down recognizing everything on him as Roman pride. Though a lot of it made Lenox huff out in a dry manner. "I look like a propaganda machine for Rome. If it's even like this anymore. The gold is a bit much even for my tastes. Just know none of this gives me real pride. Especially when I can't get myself grounded into reality still." Lenox quipped. He flexed his mechanical arms to inspect his muscles in this state. "Even though I feel rather healthy."

"Trust me, you'll get used to it, beside I could use an officer to lead the Jackal Guards. Let's go for a walk." Anubis then led Lenox out of the workshop into the open air of the Fort where for the first time since his death, Lenox can see sunlight, albeit through the lenses and optics of a robot. He saw the sunlight shining down on his body, reflecting the metallic sheen and giving off sparkling reflection of light.

The two of them saw that the Guards around the fort remained souls of the dead appearing in Jackal forms similar to Anubis but their numbers seems to have fallen greatly as Lenox noticed rows and columns of robot jackals and wolves standing in lines drilling and rehearsing combat scenario.

Most of them were either jet black or chrome grey with digits and serial codes painted on their chest. The wolves were similar to Lenox in appearance but were clearly designed to be an agile all around fighter and were less tank-like compared to him. Oddly enough Belisarius soon noticed that Anubis was leading him out of the fort to the busy streets of Alexandria. This created concerns of being seen in his mind began to take hold, causing him to hesitate. He paused at around the gate of the fort while Anubis was standing several feet in front of him. The deity's gaze remained firmly forward, looking back at the walled fort, there was little that Lenox can consider familiar to him in the slightest bit. With the deity waiting for him patiently forward, he had no choice but to walk up to Anubis side. "What are you intending Anubis? It's more than just a plain walk around the streets, isn't it?" He inquired curiously to which Anubis nonchalantly nodded.

"Indeed. You know the saying practice makes perfect, don't you?" Lenox nodded to Anubis as the two walked on the streets of Alexandria, passing by Greek citizens who quickly got out of the way in awe struck amazement. Some looked on at them in curiosity and fear, others were much more concerned by the sight. For a long time they haven't seen their Patron of the Dead and now to see him clad in armor head to toe accompanied by what could best described as an automaton Lycan from Rome. The metallic entities though sport the motifs, color and iconography of Egypt for Anubis and Roma for Lenox gave them many questions. "We draw an awful lot of attention there. You sure what you're doing here is well advised?" Lenox questioned Anubis nervously as the two were passing by the boulevard in front of the Royal Palace.

"Indeed, but not out of hands. You see that spire over there?" Anubis pointed Lenox to what appeared to be the top spire of domed structure in a public park area. Lenox followed the finger and nodded to Anubis but remain rather curious as to what the deity was implying. "This is your first challenge, reach it. I'm sure you can do it when you put your mind to it." The wording made Lenox a bit stunned, to think that he was being asked to climb on the roof of a dome structure in public view would no doubt cause concerns and rile up a mob that he certainly had no stomaches for. But when his mind try to rationalize the reasons behind the order, he saw a series of messages on his HUD.

PROG. Lvl: 1

LENOX OS v1.5 OPERATIONAL

SYSTEM PROTECTION NOMINAL  
HYDRAULICS AT FULL CAPACITY  
COMBAT MODE ENGAGED

OBJ. WAYPOINT MARKED

This gave Lenox a jolt and surge of energy in his mental faculty, he felt the need to traverse the terrain and the invisible, silent motivation probing at his mind as he let go of his thoughts and concerns, he simply begin to sprint forward and crossed the streets of Alexandria, the pedestrians were frightened and startled and they instinctively ran out of the way. He passed through the crowds without a thought, his body was agile and maneuverable like he was an Olympic athlete with his legs making a power jump over the wall of the park, this gave him a vantage point of where he would land in the park. His HUD provided him with a white segmented trajectory arc showing him his landing spot in Augmented Reality form.

He landed right on the spot that the calculation placed him to be with only a single centimeter of marginal error. Lenox looked up the pillars supporting the spire and dome roof. The pillars were smooth marbles polished to be as shiny as possible, this would make climbing and traversing them very difficult for him to perform. He then leap up to one of the pillar, his mind wonder why is he performing the action only a desire to just. He grip the pillar and felt the pawpads of his palms and feet latching on to the pillar and he commenced climbing. He leapt into the air, grappling on the pillar's higher section before reaching the roof and looked down on the populace of Alexandria below. But as the crowd build up around the Shrine of Artemis that he was on, he found it hard to spot Anubis from amongst the crowd.

Instead his HUD made a scan of the crowds, providing him with an estimated number of participant to be around 200 to 250 people. He looked around nervously not quite liking the idea of alone and gazed upon by a crowd of awed struck citizens. "Well done Lenox, it seems you are synchronizing well with your robot body." Anubis spoke to Lenox, his voice was there, clearly audible but he was nowhere to be seen not even next to Lenox. "Where are you? I can hear you but I can't see you." Lenox asked confusedly looking around the crowd for Anubis, he then saw that there was an audio spectrum tagged to an image of Anubis being displayed on his HUD. "This is what we call wireless communication Lenox, it allows you to communicate with anybody with the right frequency." Anubis explained to the surprised Lenox.

"How?" Lenox asked tersely, Anubis paused for a moment before replying to him. "Tapped on your right ear, it will allow you to triangulate my signal." Lenox hearing this hesitantly tapped his right ear as instructed. As he did so, the programming embedded into him began to synchronize with his thought process, motor function and he started to feel natural using the radio triangulation system. He started to understand how to first project a holographic map of Alexandria with a radio triangulation software to help him better visualize Anubis exact location. Three lines were drawn on the map showing the location in Alexandria that Anubis was waiting for Lenox, the now robot wolf Roman emperor soon found Anubis to be waiting for him on the hill overlooking Alexandria where the Serapeion was.

NEW OBJ. RECEIVED: REGROUP WITH ANUBIS

OBJ. WAYPOINT MARKED

His HUD showed him a highlighted path towards the Serapeion moving along the streets and boulevard of Alexandria. He then instinctually followed the path highlighted to him, now feeling less apprehensive and more natural. Lenox descended the spire with an odd sense of grace and precision as he was able to quickly grasp and plan his movement downward before vaulting over the walls of Artemis shrine. Once landed on the streets, he ran through the crowds up the stairs of the Serapeion before finally arriving at the top of the Hill. Eventually he came to Anubis who was standing on the northern end of the Serapeion looking out to the Mediterranean Sea and the Pharos Lighthouse, Anubis mentally clicked a time watch marking the time it took for Lenox to regroup with him.

"Two minutes and fifteen seconds. Not bad but can always be improved upon." Anubis stated to Lenox who blunk his optics hearing it as the robot wolf crossed his arms standing next to Anubis. "You were testing me this whole time. But I should have known seeing that the great heroes were tested in the same manners before." Lenox mused as Anubis nodded to him on his assessment. "Indeed, it was more than a test of your physical prowess. It was a test of your mental strength, bravery and courage. You fear the idea of being seen by the masses, especially when you are like this. But you must brave a lesser fear to conquer the greater threat." Hearing the words of wisdom from Anubis, Lenox began to understand the implications of Anubis methods of training.

"I can see why you hold the office of Strategos seemingly forever. At least for your army, you give them training that exposes them to the world and the elements, it teaches them more than an obstacle course could ever facilitate." Lenox commented, to which Anubis patted his back approvingly before leading him down the stairs of the Serapeion to the boulevard of Alexandria. "I'm still having quite a headache, there's so much knowledge of warfare cramped into my head in short amount of time." Lenox tapped his head several times as he walked feeling what was best described as cybernetic headache with him unable to rub his harden smooth chrome forehead to ease the pain away. "You'll get used to it. Initial headache will subside over time as you train." The Jackal deity calmly reassured the robot Roman as they came back to Fort Akra, passing by numerous stunned and awed citizens.

Back within the confines of the Fort, Lenox was led to a firing range where instead of archers practicing their bows and arrows, he saw a range stretching to nearly a kilometer with target plaques made of steel with painted silhouettes of their hostiles. No swords or spears, let alone slings, bows or javelins or even axes. Instead they used automatic guns firing powerful projectiles at incredible speed and distance. Stunned by the display Lenox let out an awed wolf whistle at the sight as he was handed a weapon by Anubis. Its appearance was that of a bullpup assault rifle with the magazine being slapped on the rear of the weapon instead of in the middle ahead of the trigger group. Lenox HUD began to relay numerous technical details and aspects of his weapon as he then held it in hands, the Storm Rider Assault Rifle.

The other robots appeared to be using the same weapon as him as they stood ready to fire their weapons at the targets presented to them. "Shooters, weapons ready, aim, fire!" Anubis shouted to them, steel targets popped up in their peripheral vision all in humanoid appearances for them to shoot at.

As soon as they popped out of the ground Lenox looked at each of the targets with the reticle built into his hud. His swung his firearm upwards aiming down its ribbed sight before pulling the trigger causing the gun to shoot off a stream of bullets. Though he wasn't expecting the initial "bang" to be so powerful.

His ears rung for a second while his shoulder felt the blow of the weapon recoil pummeling into his shoulder. The barrel of the gun moving upwards due to recoil. "This takes getting used to… Thats a lot more than i was expecting from this device." He rolled his shoulders around huffing out a breath before moving back to fire at the steel targets.

Each one a little off, and not exactly center for the old Imperator. He seemed to show some carefulness though in his aim at least. Not just spraying the bullet and taking shots at times he felt most confident. The shots began to connect with their targets properly as his HUD's accuracy meter showed that it was sliding from the 50% mark to the higher 60s and eventually 70%. He was able to zoom in and saw the target's center mass being the place where he need to hit the most.

He soon squeezed out corrected shots at those and saw that the target was penetrated rapidly. Anubis would then blew a whistle, signaling them to cease fire at the range. "Cease fire! Cease fire! Check your weapons and ammo!" Anubis shouted. On impulse Lenox disconnected the magazine of the weapon with a click before lifting it to his eyes inspecting the sights for himself. It felt much lighter now that he just used a multitude of the bullets for the target practice.

"Alright then Lenox, let me show you your gear loadout." Anubis would then lead Lenox into a barrack area where a squad of robots were staying in. Lenox counted that there were 8 robots, counting him would make the number to 9, a full squad. Within the barracks, Lenox was presented with a utility belt that magnetically locked onto his waist and clipped in. The middle of the belt had a wolf head silhouette and on the belt were various pouches and satchels carrying his additional magazines, roughly five helical motorized magazines with some pouches carrying grenades and flashbang. "So this is my standard loadout? Rather modest but very well, I'll take what I can get." Said Lenox as he examined the magnetic belt attached to his waist and the leathery satchels.

"Indeed, this is your squad now Lenox. Each one of them is equipped for a different specialization but all lead back to combat and victory. So know your roles and play it well." Anubis instructed to which Lenox nodded obediently feeling himself truly born again in the environment he started his career in. He was positioned on a square pad similar to the other robots, the pad then had a cable latched into his tail hole, scurrying its way through his anal cavity before beginning to steadily recharge him. Lenox feeling the intrusion in his anal cavity let out a surprised gasped and jolted in pleasure, his moaned in ecstasy was a confused one at best as he felt Anubis holding him by his shoulders and ease him into place. "Anubis, perhaps you should warn me first about this... method. A bit embarrassing and intrusive, despite the pleasure it brings." Lenox uttered out while gritting his teeth as he struggled to stand still and get comfortable. "My apologies, this is how the robots are charged up so get used to it from now on. You can also find external power sources from water and prepared food made for the robots. Before taking your slumber, is there anything else you want to ask?"

Lenox took a moment of quiet, thinking about what could he be desiring at the moment before an idea came into his mind. He tilted his head upward slightly before replying to Anubis. "Yes I do. I have a friend of mine, Acmeus, he is my second in command. And a very close friend. Perhaps he can be of help to these robots that you intend to train. If you can raise his soul from the Underworld as you have done mine, I will be in your debt." Hearing this Anubis scratched his chin in thought for a few seconds before giving his answer to Lenox. "That seems mutually beneficial to the both of us. Very well I'll do it. For now, sleep and rest Lenox. You'll need your strength for tomorrow's training." Lenox nodded to Anubis before feeling another cable latched into the back of his head, putting him into a sleep like state, hibernation mode more like as he rested and felt his mind drifted while program coding streamed into his cranial processing unit.


	2. Chapter 2: Reunion

Chapter 2: Reunion

Rome, the Eternal Capital of the Central Mediterranean's Super power the Roman Empire. The marbled floors of the Senate, the splendor of the Imperial palace and the grandeur of the Colosseum and Circus Maximus were some highlights of Roman life as a whole. The smell of Roman wine and the sound of birds squawking in the air as they flew over one of the largest and greatest cities of the civilized world. However, not all was peaceful and quiet in Rome.

Bellona and Vulcan were summoned to the Mausoleum of Emperor Lenox to inspect what was left of a break in. To their relief no blood was shed, but the break in to them was rather bizarre as any intruders would no doubt seek gold and wealth but Roman Mausoleum had no such treasure like that of an Egyptian pharaoh.

The Praetorians guarding the Mausoleum showed Bellona and Vulcan to the interior of the burial chamber where the sarcophagus Emperor Lenox the Wise remained physically undisturbed, there were no splashes blood on the wall with the furniture such as busts, marble stone statues of the emperor remaining where they were for ages.

The only thing that was off about the tomb was the floor, the marble stone floor had various dusty footprints on the ground with the outline matching that of a canine footprints. Bellona being the more observant of the two picked up what appeared to be round spherical objects on the floor. She found them to be metallic with an Eye of Horus symbol on its surface.

"So Vulcan, you got any idea whose this is beside the obvious?" Bellona asked rhetorically as she handed one of the balls to Vulcan for the deity of smithing to inspect himself. He in turn hummed in thought scratching his bald head and stroke his fiery red mustaches, "I'd say Egyptian but the crafting method is beyond what I know of today! The metal isn't even natural, synthesized and made from different sources." Vulcan assessed the balls but finding little to no ideas regarding its exact function.

There were more like it on the floor and from what Bellona could tell, there seem to be a sort of distraction tools where the canine paw prints ended. "Who would have a habit around dead guys and from Egypt? Vulcan I think I know where we need to go now."

"Uhhh we are going to the mines of Germania for steel?" Vulcan asked densely, causing Bellona to facepalmed herself at how dense Vulcan was. "Ugh! No we're going to find Anubis. Let's start with the Underworld since he tends to hang around there with them dead guys. Probably boning some of them for the fun of it." Bellona sarcastically replied to Vulcan before summoning a portal to allow Vulcan and her to enter, they first arrived at the Greco-Roman underworld, the Field of Elysium where the sun shined on the endless golden reeds.

But as the two deities walked around looking at the Field of Elysium, something came to their attention, the soul of Emperor Lenox was missing, nowhere to be seen. They searched around the Elysium fields, high and low but the soul of the emperor was without a trace even a deity like Bellona and Vulcan would have known. "Strange, he's usually around here or somewhere. He couldn't have just vanished, could he?" Vulcan blunk and looked around, scanning the horizon of the Elysium Fields before walking with Bellona to search for Lenox's soul. "If a god of the dead was here, they might have taken him somewhere else…" Bellona mused out loud before she stopped in the middle of the reeds.

She squinted her eyes and zoomed in on a silhouette in the distant horizon, she saw that it was definitely canine like, appearance wise a tall, athletic anthropomorphic jackal with jet black color. Clearly it was Anubis but before she could raise her voice calling to him, she noticed something was off with him. Both her and Vulcan noticed how Anubis seem to appear much more metallic than before, not even clockwork and chainlink like Vulcan's imagination. But indescribably smooth, angular and sleek metal with symmetry designs that no blacksmiths of the known world or practices could mold.

Anubis was apparently holding something in his hands, a box of sort and he didn't even seem to pay attention to Bellona or Vulcan, rather he was focused on someone in front of him. A light glow from within the box, turning into a vortex aiming its magnetic power at the human male before him. The soul of the deceased person morphed into a ball of light and flew into the box and Anubis proceeded to close his box. The jackal deity then summoned another portal and traveled through it giving Bellona and Vulcan both a rather nasty shock.

"D-did he just… did he just kidnap a dead guy?" Bellona asked confusedly and with a stunted expression on her face looking at Vulcan. "Why is he doing this and why is he back here in a sudden? We barely seen the guy for more than 2000 years!" Vulcan fired back equally shocked like Bellona. More and more questions were mounting in their minds, unresolved inquiries compelled them to do one thing, follow Anubis.

"You know I'm going to risk the gate crashing possibilities to find out what the heck is going on in Egypt." Bellona summoned a portal to Egypt with her sword weaving through the thin air, tearing open one with Vulcan following her closely, packing his hammer and signature back mounted cannons. "I'm with you on this one. Whatever happened to Anubis there, even if that really was him, I need to bring home and dissect to find out for sure." Said Vulcan as he ran into the portal with Bellona.

[hr]

Over in Egypt, the clock has now struck 10:25 in the morning, Lenox has been training all morning with his robots, their platoon started their day with tactical marches around Lake Mareotis area hours before dawn. Then they had breakfast in the form of purified fresh water and strange nutritional Nanopaste in silver grey plastic bags. After some rests for digestion, they continued their training in the obstacle courses.

They were pitted in combat slide into a concrete pipe, then zigzagged around a series of barricades, vault over barricades then dolphin dive under metal fences and crawled under it with live machine guns firing above their heads to keep them crawling and teach them how to take pressure under hail of live ammo. Afterwards they were given combat training with their rifles, squad automatic weapons, grenade launchers as well as hand grenades at marksmanship qualification courses and demolition course.

Now they were given some downtimes to rest before lunch and for Lenox as he walked about, he felt oddly natural in the robot body. He felt the metal arm remaining firm and durable despite the pieces occasionally scrape against one another. His limbs and torso felt like a living organic complex of a construct with muscles contracted then expanded naturally depending on his movements.

As he took a break from the training regimes, he looked around seeing the robots behaving in a human-like manner, some of them sit and meditate mechanically, others seem oddly enough fashioned their own fishing rods to fish by lake Mareotis. "Such humanity in cold metals, how many of these are like me? Ghosts in the shells?" He wondered while looking around at the robots, noticing them being interested in doing various activities, some were so random such as skipping pebbles across the water that he can't help but feel they have developed some forms of awareness of human-like behaviors.

After what would be best described as an anxious 30 minutes of waiting, Lenox saw Anubis returned to Fort Akra carrying the purple box with him that no doubt contain the soul of Acmeus. "Found him, quite easy enough." The jackal remarked tersely. He gestured for Lenox to come with him into the workshop where he placed the box on the table near an identical robot body to that of Lenox, though this one appeared to lack paint job.

Anubis opened the box carefully, letting the soul of Acmeus flew out from it, with the deity's hands holding it like a gentle lotus placed it over the robot's chest and let the soul sink into the body.

Lenox saw the golden orb that was his age old friend's soul merged into the robot caused the machine to light up its LED optics. This would then be followed by the robot wolf's body spasming and convulsion, heavy metallic breathing and mechanical heartbeats followed as the soul of Acmeus was no doubt being confused by the sudden alteration of his settings.

Lenox then moved to one side of the robot convinced this was working. Yet something told him to worry and stand close to his ally. Extremely close as his entire chest bent down right over Acmeus's body leaning forwards. He looked into Acmeus's face almost chest to chest much closer into his personal space than expected. "Come on… rise Acmeus! Come to life! Hear my voice!" Lenox pleaded.

For a moment Acmeus's HUD was hazy and glitchy, grainy and static like an old VHS tape, before they finally settled into place properly with hexagonal patterns morphing into proper vision with visual clarity that was as clear as the all seeing eye of any deities in his lifetime would be.

He let out a shocked and confused gasp before looking around first at the now robot wolf Lenox feeling him bearing down on him. "W-Who are you? Where am I? What has happened to me? My body… it feels strange and… ?" He asked confusedly before groaning trying to get a bearing of where he was and his stance.

Eventually he found himself to be standing upright with his body remaining still in place and a cable lodged into his anal cavity, Anubis stood next to him with Lenox bearing down, having their chests met. "What's going on here?" He continued asking. "Your voice… it sounds familiar, like I've heard it before somewhere, do I know you? Why do I feel the compulsion and pleasure to obey you?" He asked Lenox confusedly, expecting some forms of answers.

"Acmeus… It's me Lenox, Marcus Lenox. Remember we both saved Rome, the Republic was dying, and we salvaged it into an empire before anarchy reigns. With help of course at our sides, but after that our people prospered." Lenox said. As he pleaded, the emperor moved his hand closer to Acmeus's own hand before grabbing it almost tenderly in his grip. "L-Lenox? Is that you?" Acmeus asked, still rather confused by what had happened to him.

Hearing his partner uttering his name again gave the emperor much reasons to rejoice, Acmeus then glanced back at Lenox feeling the tender embrace compelling him to return the favor to his partner despite his body motor function not allowing him to move his own hands and palms as he uttered out. "But what happened to us and why are we here as… these?" He asked looking down at Lenox's robot body and his own noting how oddly well designed they were.

He heard Anubis clearing his throat however as he directed his attention to the jackal deity. "Allow me. In short, I needed some commanding talents to help fill in for my Jackal Guards growing robot army. I felt that Lenox or Belisarius here was most suitable for the role. So I resurrected him, he recommended you so I obliged knowing that you two work well with one another." Acmeus hearing this from Anubis, the deity was last his foe but also his allies in cementing Lenox being the Emperor of Rome, nodded to Anubis before looking back at Lenox once again.

His attentive gaze inspected Lenox body from top to bottom, from the shiny round chrome forehead, the pointy ears down to the firm and thick thighs even the strange wolf hind legs designs. It was a rather curious anatomy design for Acmeus but he was soon distracted from it by Lenox leaning in giving his lips a passionate kiss. He whimpered and yelped in a canine manner but let his resistance melt away and took the kiss in and played with Lenox's tongue by rubbing and grinding his own tongue against Lenox's. "I think this is our first…" He chuckled out submissively to Lenox in a playful tone he hadn't done since his youth.

Lenox chuckled out with a warm smile to Acmeus, as warm as the metal plates of his face could allow him. "Lenox, mind get into position? I need to do some modifications for you and Acmeus." hearing Anubis instruction Lenox obediently stepped aside Acmeus and got on a pad side by side with Acmeus. There were various automated industrial robot arms dismantling their armor plates revealing the synthetic skin and flesh underneath.

The two Romans noticed that the industrial robots were apparently dissecting their limbs, but they didn't feel any pain in the process. It was thanks to the cables latched into the ports on the back of their necks turning off their pain receptors and kept them numb of pains. They can listen, speak and move their eyes around to observe their surroundings. But they can't move their bodies at all. "Is this surgery you're conducting? I feel neither pain nor blood loss." Acmeus noted curiously seeing his thighs being dissected.

"In a word, this is surgery for robots. You don't feel pain because right now your consciousness is disconnected from your bodies and senses. You can watch but feel nothing." Anubis explained back to him giving him an inquisitive look as he noticed the industrial robots began to assemble weapon holsters into his thigh compartment.

On his right thigh there was a semi auto pistol with what appeared to be the hilt of a gladius sword. His HUD scanned the hilt and fed him information about it, a laser gladius that can cut through any piece of metals known to men. Their left thighs were for personal toolkits and IFAKs to provide medical attention whenever needed.

Lenox seeing the data shared to him as he received his own Gladius and pistol whistled out in awe at the perfection of the blade's design as well as the melding of futuristic technology with familiar traditional designs. "Incredible, I can definitely get used to this. A gladius reminding us of our roots."

As the surgical process came to an end, Lenox and Acmeus saw that the robot arms left them as their HUDs were registering the weapon systems that their systems had been updated with. They saw on their HUDs a seamless selection of plasma cannons, missile racks or any other built in gadgets that his body carried with just a thought.

This was rather helpful for Lenox to be able to control his body's various cybernetic function. He then felt the cables disengaging from his body letting him walk about again as his shoulders display the missile racks, his palms disassembled their plates to reveal the plasma cannons before reassembling them to hide his weapons. "Looks like your weapon systems are working Lenox, congratulation. This should help you fend off your foes and even overwhelm them." Said Anubis in an approving tone patting him on his back.

He didn't seem to be satisfied with his weapon demonstration just yet. His thigh compartment opened up by popping open a single door which swung on concealed hinge. He grabbed the laser Gladius by its hilt and flung it outwards spinning the hilt in his hand before lighting the sword up revealing it.

It started out as a plasmatic cyan colored flame at first before it quickly solidified into a blade that glow a bright cyan color humming gently. The ends of the blade appearing sharp and ready to cut through anything yet appealed to beliarius's eyes.

"I prefer this weapon already." he stated in a rather terse voice. Acmeus nodded as he held his gladius in hand feeling his Legionaire training coming back to him and the familiar weapon being a tool that he could no doubt rely on in close combat where modern firearms might be disadvantageous.

"I concur, nothing like Roman steel tasting the blood of our enemies." Acmeus nodded before deactivating the laser Gladius and sheathed it inside his thigh compartment. He took one last look at himself, and he appeared to be rather flustered from the proportionate body, the idealized sculpted masculine image of Greco-Roman heroes such as Herakles/Hercules.

The balance between athletic and powerful bruiser for him and Lenox, though he lacked paint color like that of Lenox. "Perhaps I should give you one last touch of paint color, Lenox mind assisting him?" Anubis asked Lenox, who then nodded obediently to the deity and led Acmeus to the same room he had been in the previous day.

There Acmeus was placed on the same 9 tiles pad that Lenox stood on with mirrors in front of him to see how the paint color would be applied to his body. He saw that the sprayers and paint job, the robot arms then began to apply the jet black paint color on his armor plates, on his chest armor, and an armored loin piece over his lower region.

The paint job that was being applied to him started on his wrists and shoulder plates, on his legs, the robot arms applied a similar paint job on his heels, on the edge of the primary paint jobs were light purple patterns and highlights.

On his torso, he saw that the robot arms gave his chest a crimson red color that seemed more widely spread out with a golden eagle of Rome painted on his heart. Some outer purple highlights were added on the borders of his armor making him seem powerful and youthful in Roman color symbolism. Wherever there was white border would soon be. On his already jet black chest, Acmeus saw that he was given a white variant of a Roman Eagle symbol that Lenox had.

Once the paint job was dried up and Acmeus stepped off the pad, he was greeted by Lenox giving him a tender hug. "I am glad that we are together again at least." He muzzled Acmeus who smiled and smittenly wrapped his hands around Lenox body before giving him a passionate kiss on his lips.

"Indeed Marcus, you chose this paint color for me didn't you?" He asked with a bit of pleasured panting. "Yes I did, you've always been one with youth and energy. It fits you, no?" Lenox spoke softly as he and Acmeus licked each other's lips with their tongues.

"Maybe it really does, youth and fiery strength, and yet I am your second in command." Acmeus chuckled out ticklishly as he felt Lenox stroke his back and rubbed their chests into one another. He then turned around wiggling his smooth robot rumps against Lenox's bulgy crotch causing Lenox to chuckle out and moaned in surprised pleasure and ecstasy.

"Oh no Acmeus, please not here, not now. But soon enough when we have some… privacy and time." Lenox grabbed hold of Acmeus round rumps and gently stroke and rubbed the metal buttocks as Acmeus stood back up. For a moment of slight indulgent he moved his palms forward around Acmeus waist and reached to grab hold of Acmeus own bulge and slowly stroke it causing Acmeus to whimper instinctually.

"Let's go then, we have plenty to catch up on. Starting with Anubis." Acmeus hearing this was reasonably curious but seeing his age old close friend and partner was confident enough in he didn't have much of a reason to be too concerned about. He followed Lenox back to Anubis who appeared to be rather pleased to see the two ready for orders.

"Good work Lenox, you're shaping up to be a fine right hand man." Anubis complimented Lenox, triggering a euphora of tingling pleasurable sensations in Lenox mine as he then knelt down before Anubis resting his right arm on his right knee.

"The honor to serve is mine Anubis, I am pleased that you bring back Acmeus, he is my companion and love." Lenox replied making Acmeus feeling rather smitten by his partner's dedication. His behavior began to take on a more professional and enthusiastic bent as his embedded programming encouraged him further.

He stood in place as Anubis came before him and gave his chin a scratch, tickling him a bit and he whimpered in a canine like manner before he submissively knelt down before Anubis and acting similarly to Lenox.

Deep down he found it conflicting for kneeling and bowing his head before an Egyptian deity and yet it felt so good. He and Lenox felt their minds were being incentivized to obey Anubis but not to the extreme of losing their minds, rather it was more of simple prods and reinforcement of positive feelings.

"Lenox, now that you have Acmeus back he is your second in command, your right hand in the squad. Understood?" Lenox nodded obediently to Anubis when he heard the deity, "Understood Anubis. He will be the finest there is and more, will you Acmeus?" Acmeus in turn obediently remarked to them both as he remained still on the ground. "I will on my Roman honor, you will not be disappointed Anubis." Lenox then had Acmeus standing up before leading him to their squad's barracks.

[hr]

As for Bellona and Vulcan, after they exited the portal and arrived in Egypt, they found themselves to be in the middle of the desert, they had to navigate using the movement of the sun to find their directions in conjunction with their compass. Once they have left the desert and find their way to Alexandria following the highway running around Lake Mareotis and the settlement of Yamu.

"You sure that we're going the right way Bellona? He could be anywhere by now and who knows what on earth is he doing." Vulcan stated to Bellona as they walked on the streets of Alexandria much to the awe and shock of the native pedestrians. "I'm pretty sure of it. I can feel it… I sense life force of a warrior, Vulcan. It's here somewhere in this city and I intend to find it." She assured Vulcan sternly before leading him with her zigzagging through the streets of Alexandria towards Fort Akra.

"In here, I can sense him somewhere in there." Bellona stated to Vulcan as he nodded to her, "So how do you think we should enter? Barge in? Didn't work the last time. Smuggle our way in? Unless they have Nordic mercenaries guarding the place." He asked her bluntly with a slight tinge of eccentric excitement before she shushed him. "Hey cool it, we don't need another Greco-Egyptian War like the last time. Those guys maybe farmers but if that canem mortuum dei (Dog of the Dead) has shown us anything is that peaceful farmers can and will pierce your flesh."

But as the two were talking to one another, Anubis was watching them using security cameras mounted on vantage points around the entrance of the Fort. Seeing the two again causing him to grow concern, but knowing that more misunderstanding might arise, he opted to meet them in person. Melting into the ground as dark shadow and mist, he traveled like the wind out of the barracks area into the open where he met Bellona and Vulcan. He rematerialized in front of them with his scepter in hands. "Bellona, Vulcan. What are you two doing here?" He asked coyly.

"Whoa! Anubis is that you? What just happened to you?" Bellona asked stunned and completely grossed out seeing Anubis encased in metal armor plates from head to toe. Vulcan however was much more curious and excited as he tapped on Anubis forehead with his finger, the metal gloves of Vulcan clanking against the metal forehead of Anubis made the Jackal deity nudged a bit. "Whatever happened to you I like it, this blows my forging techniques out of the water for sure." Vulcan stated with a grin on his face as he inspect Anubis vigorously much to Bellona's dismay. "No seriously Anubis what happened to you? The last time we met you were just fine, looking flesh and blood and no you're… like one of Vulcan's automatons."

Seeing the grossed out and unpleasant expression on Bellona's face gave Anubis the chilling feeling that whatever he done most deities outside of the family would frown on. "Would you like some tea?" He asked her blankly trying his best to avoid answering the hard question at hand regarding his appearance.

"Tea? Hello? Did you even hear me Anubis? What happened to you?" Bellona asked him sternly again, this time with even more demanding tone that made him sighed out. "Alright, I…" He paused for a second feeling hesitant to speak the truth. "...was experimenting with some… body augmentation fluids and it was a success." He awkwardly tried to force a lie out of his mouth to which Bellona blunk blankly while Vulcan could only tap on Anubis shoulders inspecting the metal materials that he used.

"Success? Look how about you tell me the truth and be honest about what you're doing and I won't knock you out for it." Bellona held up her rather large sword with the edge of the blade pointing at Anubis chin and neck threatening to pierce him. He gulped thickly before replying to her and nodded, "Alright, let's come inside and we'll have a friendly chat." He then led them inside of Fort Akra to a reception area where they could sit down and have a friendly chat with him.

But as they came inside, Bellona and Vulcan both gasped and were quick to be distracted by the sight of robot wolves bearing chiseled male physiques. They look like living statues of classical mythological heroes if they were made from Vulcan's foundries and can walk, act like living beings.

They all give Bellona and Vulcan long emotionless stares that felt creepy to the Roman deities, the feeling of creepiness was amplified ten-fold with how the robots seems to have highly detailed pectoral, abdomen regions coupled with their muscular athletic build and the alluring crotch region they have.

"Lenox, Acmeus, assemble and assist our guests." Anubis whispered mentally using his cybernetic coms to call upon the two robot wolves of particular interests. The two robots who were inside the confines of their barracks were soon activated and obediently went to the reception building of the barracks front area to meet Anubis.

Once inside and settled down, Anubis offered them some tea with one of the robots wolves bringing them some Egyptian lotus teas. Bellona looked up at this one particular robot, seeing the crimson red chrome color and the Roman symbol on his chest, the one next to it appeared to have jet black armor with a Roman Eagle symbol gave her a double take.

"Hey whoa why is this one a Roman propaganda icon?" She asked bluntly to the robot who was actually Marcus Lenox, causing the robot to grow ever concerning as she stood up looking at him straight in the face. She shot a glare at the robot next to him and observed both of them to see that they were growing concern of her reaction.

"Beg your pardon?" He asked her causing Bellona to fall over on Vulcan as the God of smithing had an equally shocked expression on his face. "What in the Heavens? Is that him? Primum Caesar Marcus Lenox?" Vulcan asked as he came over to inspect Lenox new body. "Lenox, hey Marcus remember your Goddess Bellona? You know the patron of warriors and Legionaires that helped you through your career?" Bellona asked him anxiously expecting him to answer her somehow.

Lenox though outwardly appeared stiff by the armor plates on his face seem to develop a nervous and anxious expression with his LED optics adjusting their irises to the appropriate level. "A-affirmative, I am Primum Caesar Marcus Lenox, Unit CLU-I 01172 or simply known as Lenox." He answered robotically to her feeling for some odd reason the compulsion to speak but none of it was his own. "I am Unit CLU-I -1171 or simply known as Acmeus, registered right hand of Unit Lenox." Acmeus added in sounding equally monotonous to Lenox.

Hearing this Bellona had a mixture of stunned surprised and awkward feeling at Lenox and Acmeus sudden robotic monotone. "Uh what's wrong with both of you? You don't act and sound like yourself. Is something wrong?" Bellona grew worried some as she placed her palm on Lenox's cheek and caressed him gently causing him to pant out in pleasure. He didn't moan but his robot breathing became much more excited by her touch.

"I am well, apologies my goddess Bellona for troubling you. I was… resurrected by Anubis for something he required me for." He paused and let Bellona looking over at Anubis who simply sat there calm and chilled as she shot a glare at him. "Why did you resurrect Lenox? And why this body? Is this some sort of fetish for you Anubis?" She asked Anubis now sounding more like an interrogation than a civilized conversation.

"It's the safest body for him at this point. A fragile mortal body? He'd be killed in a second with what my enemies can throw at him nowadays." Anubis replied to her, which Lenox nodded to the statement as he stood still as a statue for Bellona and Vulcan to inspect his body. "Well count me in, he looks buff and beefy and he looks like he got my eyes hooked forever there." Vulcan replied eccentrically as he stood behind Lenox inspecting his back and stubby metal tail segment while Bellona inspected Lenox front.

She found his wolf face to be smooth and shiny with his robot eyes apparently focused on her while she ran her hand down to his chest and abdomen region. She felt the cold metal of the armor plates while at the same time noticing the way the artificial muscle underneath swell then swollen with each breath Lenox took. "What kind of magic is this?" Bellona asked Lenox, to which he sighed out to her while obediently replied. "Composite armor forged from classified materials and Nano weaved carbon fiber mesh. Artificial skin and flesh underneath."

She ran her hand down from his abdomen to his bulge and thigh causing him to yelp out in a canid voice with his head perking straight up as he struggled to keep himself still for Bellona to inspect him while Vulcan was apparently growing increasingly fond of inspecting Acmeus front and back sides. "Whoa… he made you come packing, not gonna complain about that though. Lenox, why did he choose you of all people?"

He then looked at her in the face, eye-to-eye as she could see the beaming gazes radiate with a soul lost for words or direction. "It is difficult to explain… there is a matter of personal connection to me. He gave me a short version but I need to know more, therefore I saw fit to follow him and understand if this mechanical body can benefit me, and perhaps Rome." He replied dryly which caused her to grow concern as she listened to his now somewhat radio like synthesized voice.

"You're absolutely certain about this?" She asked rhetorically sounding rather cautious upon hearing it. "It is my decision Bellona." He replied to her suddenly sounding rather certain and sure after tense minutes of indecision.

Hearing this Bellona felt off putting and immediately went over to Anubis and grabbed him by his shoulders pushing him down on his chair, causing Lenox be concerned and immediately hunched over assuming a dash pose to intervene if things escalate. "Listen here Anubis, I don't know what you did to Lenox but let me make this clear: keep him safe. Got it?"

Hearing this made Anubis huffed out and stood up to Bellona and held her wrists. "Consider it done." He replied bluntly. Bellona huffed out hearing this and took a step back from Anubis as she crossed her arms before gesturing Vulcan to come with her.

"Wait my goddess." Lenox called to her, making her stumped in the middle of the way and looked back at him. "Perhaps before you leave for Rome so hastily, you and Vulcan should take time to study what our Egyptian allies has to offer this time around." Bellona hearing this came over to Lenox and held both his cheeks and pulled him in closer to her face.

"I'm all ears, to their teaching." She then proceeded to force a kiss on his lips, giving him a passionate bliss that silenced him before he can possibly object and accepted her kiss. "And yes, I do love you even though you are a mortal. Good luck out there, and don't get killed." Said Bellona, to which Lenox nodded to her still stunned, "A-a-affirmative, the bliss and sensation were rather… pleasant to say the least." He panted to her with his synthetic tongue sticking out in pleasure, apparently pleased and loved the kiss she gave him. Vulcan however was flustered and had his jaw hung open in shock at Bellona's transparent love making.


	3. Chapter 3: Rearming

**(Author's note: The following chapter has been completely revamped and rewritten from its original version due to the need to improve on the plot's structure and retconning. Other chapters will also be changed and retconned with more streamlined plot and less gimmicky and redundant character introductions)**

Chapter 3: Rearming

173rd Airborne HQ

Caserma, Vicenza, Italia.

June 2nd, 2034 08:40 AM

Tension has been at an all time high in recent memories, the Mediterranean Theater has become a new hotspot for the 21st Century as it moved further forward and yet these tensions had been as old as dirt itself. Roughly 60 to 50 years ago, the 173rd Airborne stationed there would have been there to prepare to counter the Red Menace. But now with the dust of another World War settled, the 173rd Airborne only perform guard duty on the surplus of military hardware built up and stationed there.

Inside a conference board room, the generals were going over the latest round of intel concerning recent developments in the old Middle East. One was a rather high ranking general, Lt. General Shepherd an African American with a long history of meritorious service for the US Army from the dawn of the 21st Century's various wars. The other being a younger man, a Lt. Colonel of the GDI with his ACU uniform and a "Grady" nametag.

"Alright people we have here are recon photos from one our SR-71 Blackbirds at 02:03 hours overhead flight at Megiddo." Shepherd stated as he opened up a case file folder containing various photos. These show a runway of a local airstrip being populated with odd gunship models, they had the Kamov signature coaxial rotor design, but the sleek and curve black silhouette suggest a stealth gunship.

One of those presences at the meeting was Joe Marshall, a rather tall and robust build of a man, perhaps the closest to a modern Herculean. He wore his Orion Sword uniform like an old memento complete with his organization patch on the shoulder. "Megiddo? Anything of interest there beside the extensive archaeological expeditions?" He asked curiously.

"What we know so far is that whoever's operating there, aren't IDF. These guys are privateers, freelancers, mercs in short." Jason Grady remarked sharing his photo with Joe of what appeared to be a massive archaeological operation being conducted on the ruins of fortress Tel-Megiddo.

General Shepherd then used a remote to activate the project mounted on the ceiling of the conference room and showed surveillance footage of the site conducted by an Orion F/A-47B flying wing-type drone orbiting Megiddo, the drone was equipped with wiretapping and eavesdropping equipment and upon looking at the general direction of an active conversation would allow the user to record the conversation.

As the camera of the drone zoomed in on one of the command tents, they heard a phone conversation between a raspy middle aged male with an odd accent with a female accomplice on the other end of the phone, but she seems to sound artificial, presumably thanks to voice modulator.

"Yes Baroness? We're still working around the ruins of Megiddo right now… no not yet. The tomb is well protected. Our workers are demanding higher pay if we're going further." They heard a sigh on the caller's end and what came afterwards was rather foreboding to all of their ears. "Then make sure they won't see their families again. Unless you want him to step in personally." The nonchalant tone, the casual remark when mentioning cruelties as a form of punishment disturbed both the GDI men, but Joe remained stoic and not at all moved or even flinch by it.

"Alright, alright! Jeez, don't bring him here, he's fucking unstable and an asshole. I'll handle this myself but the more workers killed will bring more attention to the site."; "I hope so, for your sake." The female caller ended the call and hung up with her associate. They saw the high definition black-white image of the drone's FLIR camera zoomed out and showed a man leaving the tent possibly the one on the phone, accompanied by a pair of highly trained bodyguards wearing arachnid like goggles and ballistic masks, advanced helmets and digital hexagonal combat suits.

"Tomb? What could they be digging down there? I thought it was supposed to be Museum jurisdiction?" Jason asked curiously before turning his eyes to the taller and larger Joe Marshall. "Well was there any museums conduct archaeology on Atlantis when we found the subcontinent?" He asked rhetorically and Jason nodded with a grumble, "Yeah you're right on that part. Sir, what do you think is going on there? For the past 20 years the Israelis have been flipping harder to some forms of lunacy. Election rigging, appointment of cronies, and the split between the IDF and these mercs is the latest round."

"That's the part I am most concerned with Lt. Colonel Grady, the point being is that we are sitting on an age old powder keg that has been lit up one too many times already." Joe and Jason nodded in agreement to General Shepherd statement, they themselves were grizzling veterans with experience in numerous conflicts already and knew what to expect when it came to potential flashpoints.

"We have allies and partners who are concerned with the recent round chest thumping. Everyone in the region is prodding and probing to see what's going on in there, so I want you two to be on the ground and see where will this madness go. Stop it if you have to, otherwise a regional war will go nuclear out of recklessness. Then again, it wouldn't as bad when Godzilla is strolling around in radioactive zones to give us a new rainforest or two." Shepherd remarked with a bit of sarcasm that gave Jason a slight chuckle when he heard it. "When do we leave?" He asked, "Tomorrow, 05:00 hours. So get some sleep while you can."

[hr]

But while the GDI and their Orion Sword compatriots were conducting their day to day operations in Caserma, Vicenza, the humans did not know that they were being spied upon by a robot raptor. From faraway it appeared to be nothing but a falcon perching on the rooftop of the highest tower of Basilica Palladina. But upon closer inspection it appeared to be a robot falcon, one appeared to be sporting a jet black armored "Feather" and wings with golden highlights and panel flaps. Its eyes were zooming optics under a LED lense able to take snapshots and 4K HD photographs of the base's central area, which has now become a vehicle depot for military surplus like tanks, APCs, IFVs, light vehicles and others including choppers and gunships captured from Orion Sword.

"You're getting this Belisarius?" The falcon asked over the cyber coms network to Belisarius, who was hiding to the south of the city of Vicenza, tucking under the trees of the woodland area far from the city center, Belisarius observed the reconnaissance operation being displayed on his HUD via a secondary window.

"Affirmative, photos look good, how many vehicles do we need to procure?" he asked the falcon, or rather crown prince Horus on the coms network with their voices having a spectrum monitor accompanying a caller ID to make sure they weren't impostors. "Roughly 650 armored vehicles, which are 300 tanks, 250 APCs and IFVs, 1200 of their MRAPs along with 60 helicopters including gunships. I can do several teleportation trips for the vehicles to the Tartarus but the helicopters we'll have our pilots fly them back to the ship."

Belisarius nodded to Horus as the falcon prince continues his soaring through the sky, using his optical camera system to take photos of the massive vehicle depots. He kept orbiting the area as he took photos from 2 klicks away from the compound, but as he flew towards the East, his wings were caught in the sunlight reflecting his glaring tints off to the ground. Some of the soldiers and civilian personnel in and around the base took notice and were rather curious.

They quickly pulled out their phones, cameras, tablets and whatever recording devices to try and zoom in on Horus as he was flapping his wings and flew down to the South. Some of the men in the base scratched their heads baffled by Horus flight, they assume it was merely an RC toy but it was flying rather gracefully for an RC toy as if it was an organic bird. Not to mention its odd appearance and shiny look sold them the ancient Egypt appeal that they did not expect. "Where did that bird come from?" Joe Marshall wondered as he observed its flight pattern into the nearby forest to the south.

As for Horus, he landed into the nearby woodland and morphed back to his usual anthro avian form in front of Belisarius and let out a "Phew" of relief. "How was the flight your Highness? Do you think they've seen you?" Belisarius asked concernedly before seeing Horus dusting his shoulders nonchalantly. "See me? They did? Abort mission? Absolutely not. We'll make our move tonight, and it's crucial that we get those vehicles otherwise you'll be humping ground and late for all battles." Horus remarked and Belisarius gave a nod in confirmation of his orders.

Horus then drew up a digital map for Belisarius using their advanced augmented reality system and holographic imagery to illustrate for Belisarius his objectives. "Good, your team will handle security around the vehicle depot, blackout the depot's security system and it will give us free access to the vehicles. Then I'll make my teleportation work. 2nd Team will set up security around the place to keep the response force from getting to you, 3rd Team is the pilot team, they'll fly those aircraft out to avoid damaging them during my teleportation."

Studying the map carefully, Belisarius took note of the routes and objectives, he rotated the map around with his paw to examine the base's interiors for blind spot and correspond them with the photos Horus took of the base. "No killings?" He asked curiously, "Absolutely not, set your weapons to stun only, stealth is key and it may bring us out in one piece. Hopefully." Horus replied, confirming his hypothesis and Belisarius nodded. "Affirmative sir, I'll make sure no blood shall be spilled tonight."; "Good, I can see why Anubis trust you. And… call me Horus."

Belisarius nervously gulped but swallowed his breath mentally as Horus walked away from sight to continue his observation of the base. With the photos of the base in hands he continued the study the routes he had to take once he was inside, he glanced over his shoulder and took a look at his squad. They have been reinforced so far with at least one new face, a rather odd case in the dozen or so robots he commanded.

Belisarius walked towards the one robot wolf who was resting after Arminius had him done 25 consecutive push-ups with a full load on his back as "Warm up" exercise. This one was shorter than either he or Arminius, with silver grey chrome armor, with some albino hints, blue highlights on his head, panels and limbs, his HUD told him the name of this robot was oddly enough a full name, Charlie Pawliberius Frost. "So you are our new man? Odd that you have a full name instead of just a codename, you don't seem to have a serial like the others either." Belisarius greeted, catching Charlie's attention as the young wolf glanced up at the Herculean one.

"Uh yeah, I'm Charlie, Anubis' son… I think. Just not sure about that whole part of me being related to him." Charlie's words seem to catch Belisarius by surprise however as he did not know of Anubis having an offspring of any sorts before. "You are his son? With who? Don't tell me he was philandering like Zeus?" Belisarius asked profusely prompting Arminius to take another look at Charlie with great curiosity gleaming in his optics. "Can it be that Anubis took up the Olympian quirk as well?" Arminius asked causing Charlie greater confusion than necessary.

"Alright look guys, it's just that… well… Anubis said that I'm his son reincarnated or something like that. And he has been looking for me for a long time to adopt me and bring me to his home to raise. I don't know or understand the full details." Charlie sighed out exasperated for having to explain things he barely understood to his commanding officers before finally having to catch his breath.

He laid down on his back using the backpack containing his gears as a makeshift pillow and bed. "Most interesting. I have to keep a close eye on you just in case. I trust that you can pull your weight while we're out there?" He asked Charlie sternly, not liking the slacking attitude that was radiating from Charlie's mannerisms, the young robot arctic wolf nodded nervously to his CO hearing the gruff and gravelly voice coming from him.

"Y-yes sir! I will." He saluted Belisarius in a more modern manner, though the CO might recognize it but he didn't seem to reciprocate, "At ease," He remarked with a traditional Roman salute to Charlie. "For our sake Charlie, and yours, do not jeopardize anyone or anything." Belisarius grumbled slightly before sitting down by a rock, his squad had already sent out some of its members to go on patrol around their perimeter just in case if something goes wrong, for now they rest till nightfall.

[hr]

23:04 Hours

Once the sun has set on the distant horizon, and the stars illuminate the celestial body above, their mission green lit by Horus. Anubis sat in his war room onboard the Tartarus, observing the conduct of his troops as they drove towards the perimeter of the base using civilian vans to disguised themselves.

Belisarius sat in one of the vans with Arminius, and their squad, they let some of the robots with more training to take the wheel while they sat and watched as they passed through the streets of Caserma at night. "To think this was where I fought Crassus one last time. Can't they see us through this glass?" Belisarius asked nervously while looking at the streetlights that they passed by.

"Negative, the glass is heavily tinted one way glass, we can see them but they can't see us." The driver replied dryly with a robotic monotone, giving Belisarius some shiver at the thought that some of them if not all of them look identical to him, his voice might be what set him and Arminius apart from the rest of the pack.

"That sounds reassuring." Said Belisarius with a scoff as he sat down next to Arminius while Charlie was in front of him as the van drove closer to the 173rd Airborne Brigade. "Are you sure about this? Like everything goes according to plan, like clockwork?" Charlie asked nervously while resting his rifle on his lap feeling the weapon's weight being noticeably heavier than his usual myriad of gadgets.

"I have my doubts," Belisarius began, "But know this, a bad plan is one that cannot be changed." He lectured Charlie, using an old Roman proverb and Charlie leaned forward at his commanding officer curious at its exact meaning. "You mean, improvise and adaptation?" He asked, to which Arminius and Belisarius nodded. "Indeed, don't expect all will go according to plans. Make your plan simple, your goal consistent, flexible execution. Fortuna favors the bold after all."

As they came up close to the base's perimeter, the trucks began to take up position around the base's walls and fences, parking inside of alleyways and darkened areas to avoid the curious prying eyes of pedestrians and passerby who might come across them by accident.

There, the robot wolves piled out of the vans, one came out first, slowly scout around the corner of the alleyway they parked in before signalling the others to follow suite. "Remember we're here for the vehicles, no killing otherwise more complications than necessary." Horus reminded them on the coms network while orbiting the city of Caserma in the guise of a jet black robot falcon circling the base.

The guards around the base perimeter were still oblivious to the infiltration so they went about their rounds, being rather relaxed and calm not quite sure what to expect for tonight. All of the guards have night vision goggles mounted on their helmets to see through the darkness as they marched around the base in patrols of two each. Some were on the high walls of guard towers shining lights down on the nearby perimeter and streets.

Belisarius team, or rather wolf pack, was on the eastern side of the base, by the wall that separated them from the vehicle depot. Belisarius then gestured for them to engage their magnetic pawpads, electronic humming was heard briefly as the pawpads were engaged and they began to vertically scale the length of the wall at the same time.

Once they were over the top, they all jumped down on the ground, making a series of thuds before quickly rolling into darkness for cover. Charlie was ducking by the corner of a shed when one of the GDI guards roaming around the base passed by, "I thought I heard something." Said the man, the soldier passed by the corner, he looked around and stood there to scan the area slowly for any signs of intrusions before shrugging.

"Must be my imagination. God I gotta check with the doctor for hallucination or something, I might be crazy." He mumbled before moving on, walking by the darkened areas. But as he went on closer to the next corner, he saw something that caught his eyes. He thought he was having a mirage, but once he adjusted his goggle, he saw what appeared to be a canid face hiding in the dark, with crimson red color and gold eagle of Rome iconography on the pauldron.

"What the-" he gasped out and flabbergasted, when suddenly a suppressed gunshot was heard and a sting was felt on the back of his neck before fell to the ground instantly, he groaned for a moment before snoring in front of Belisarius, who cringed ever so slightly at the sight. "Thank you Charlie, for a moment there I thought we were blown." Said Belisarius with a sigh of relief as he then drag the soldier into a dark corner and flipped his goggles up and tied his wrists and ankles using zip cuffs and gagged his mouth.

"I'll take care of the guards around here, you secure the power grid and hurry, 2nd Team and 3rd Team almost sounds off their infiltration by now." Belisarius ordered Charlie who nodded to him and began to make a dash towards the generator shed of the motor pool, Arminius on the other hand used his pawpads to gain the high ground on a rooftop overlooking the massive vehicle pool that had now been expanded to take up every other available space of the base and the surrounding areas.

"Such waste war makes." Arminius commented being baffled by the sight of the sprawling unofficial vehicle depot land where tanks and other armored vehicles were parked on the field along with helicopters. "It looks like the extended area had its own generator. Hopefully 3rd and 2nd Team are able to secure those too. But once we start teleport those war machines, I assume the entire base will be on us like rats on bread loaves." He sighed out before lying prone using his rifle's scope to zoom in and assess the situation in front for Charlie.

His scope had its thermal imaging switched on, he saw the world basked in a black and white grey tint with the humans were highlighted as white silhouettes roaming about with their weapons slung around their waists. "Careful, there's one in front of you," Arminius warned Charlie, who then climbed over the fence and vaulted over before dropping down behind the soldier.

Charlie knocked him out with a jab to his head, knocking him out cold. "I trust that you are trained in trauma assessment?" Arminius asked concernedly, "Uhh… don't worry I didn't kill him. He'll be fine." Said Charlie defensively as he nervously hid the unconscious guard behind some crates. Charlie then opened the door into the generator room where the thermometer heightened, making Charlie cautiously went inside with his stature crouched down.

He made his way towards the transformers inside the shed and quickly flipped the switch, shutting down electricity for the vehicle depot. This however had the unwanted side effect of shutting off power to other parts of the base as well, including the officer quarters and lounge. Joe Marshall was sleeping in his room when the power went off, he felt the sudden spike in the evening cold air in his room, feeling that something was off and suspected that an infiltration was in the works. In no time at all, he grabbed his sidearm and holstered his USP40 pistol and put on his personal Orion Sword combat helmet and advanced combat armored suit to face the assailants head on.

"Uhh Charlie, there's a difference between just the depot and the whole base. Because now the humans are coming at you." Horus shrugged nervously as he knew that the operation was about to turn hot, perhaps much sooner than anticipated. He flew down to the depot as the robots there were putting knockout humans into hiding spots to keep them from alarming the base. "Guess I'll have to do this early, keep them off of me. Team 2 and 3, your show now, capture those depot extensions!" Horus screeched out on the coms before flying down towards the depot and landed on his feet morphing back to his default form.

"Charlie, take position with the others, I'll scout out the humans moving in and maybe buy you all some time." Belisarius ordered Charlie and directed him into place, the second floor of a guard shed with windows overlooking the western areas of the base. Belisarius himself began to venture out towards the western side of the base to observe if the humans were responding in force, he saw so far only light patrols were maintaining their rounds. Some were diverted with flashlights and escort for technicians towards the depot area.

"Still no responses, something isn't right man, I can feel it. I mean a whole bunch of guys suddenly not responding to radio? This ain't right." one of the GDI Autorifleman said as he walked with the other soldiers towards the depot's sheds. As they came closer, Belisarius gently backed away into the shadow to hide from them. "I feel you bro, ever since the war ended, it's like Pandora box was opened." his rifleman teammate replied while holding a rather powerful lamp in his left hand while brandishing his H&K M416 rifle in the other.

The robot wolf backed away slowly, but his whirring actuators and hydraulics within his body were attracting the attention of someone else, Joe Marshall. The Orion Sword current headman was slowing down his movements to listen in on the metal clanking of Belisarius footsteps and the sound of the robot's interiors working. His curiosity grew and somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt that whoever infiltrated the place was doing a poor job at noise reduction. He came by the corner of the wall, tracking the sound on the other side of the wall that obstructed his view of the culprit.

Belisarius was taking a turn around the corner when suddenly Joe grabbed Belisarius by his wrist and pulled him over, the robot wolf grunted feeling the strength nearly equal to his own pulling him and he ended up smacking into the wall and his weapon fell to the ground. "Tantum fortunam meam…" Belisarius grumbled in pain from the brief stunt that left his HUD slightly scrambled before it reset to nominal condition.

Joe however felt somewhat stunted, he hesitated when he heard Belisarius voice being eerily familiar to him. No, it was strikingly similar to… it can't be. Joe's mind was teaming with thoughts on what Belisarius really was beside the obvious, so much so that he was distracted by Belisarius feet kicking Joe falling over his back before the robot wolf scrambled to recover his weapon. "Oh no you don't!" Joe quickly recovered and tackled the wolf with a pounce, forcing Belisarius falling down on his chest with a loud crash and thud that diverted the attention of some of the GDI and Orion Sword troopers over towards the scuffle in the dark.

"What the hell are you?" Joe asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer from the robot wolf anytime soon, neither did he expect the wolf's determination to throw him off as Belisarius rolled over onto his back before grabbing Joe's hands and pry them away from his neck and elbowed him in the waist. The Herculean lycan robot was mindful of his strength output as he made sure not to spill human blood who were simply doing their job. "Persistent one you are." Belisarius commented as he got off of Joe and scrambled for his rifle.

The Orion Sword commander however was left stunted by the voice once he tersely commented, "It can't be…" Joe thought he knew whose voice that was for sure, Mr. Grey, the previous head of Orion Sword. "What the hell are you!? Why do you have his voice?" Joe voraciously called out to Belisarius, his face contorted and frowned , he stopped in place and glanced back at Joe over his shoulder, "I am under no obligation to disclose my identity." Belisarius replied robotically to Joe, sending a cold chill down the super soldier's spine to hear the voice of Mr. Grey now suddenly a monotonous robot speech.

Just then, the other GDI and Orion soldiers came around the corner with their weapons on and they trained their sights on Belisarius assuming a hostile robot. "What the hell is that thing?" one of them cried out, "The fuck knows man! Why is it an action figure?" Another cried out flabbergasting in confusion. "Does anyone have a dog collar for this thing? I have no idea why it's an anthro. Are we lost in furry fantasies?" Another GDI troopers added in a rather drowsy voice due to the sudden wake up call he received.

Belisarius quickly leap into the air and able to land behind them before sprinting away while the GDI troops chased him down with Joe Marshall give chase behind. "All callsigns be advised, we're under attack! I repeat we're under attack! They're at the vehicle depots, I repeat they're at the vehicle depots!" Marshall alerted the dispatch network as their QRFs were hastily shook out of their beds and hustled to get their uniform, arms and patrol vehicles ready to move out. Marshall chased Belisarius into a dark storage shed where he put on his night vision goggles and began to sweep the building slowly, methodically for Belisarius. "Where are you…" Joe grumbled under his breath.

He kept his guard up while panning his head around slowly to scan the area for signs of Belisarius movements or telltale signs of his mechanical whirring and actuators. "This one is persistent… what's his story?" Belisarius was baffled by Joe's determination, the robot wolf had to climb up the scaffolding inside the shed to the i-beams above and crouch down to balance himself as he kept himself still in the dark to avoid being sighted.

However, complications came to him in the forms of each of the soldiers searching the place came equipped with night vision goggles and tactical IR flashlights mounted on their weapons. "Searching, come on that thing is a hunk of metal, it can't just hide that easily." One of the Orion Sword troopers accompanying the search party called out while looking around before he suddenly came across Belisarius hiding on the I-Beam and called out.

They began to open fire on Belisarius forcing the robot wolf to make a leap out of the window, shattering it to pieces and landed with a loud thud on the ground, cratering the pavements in the process. "Horus, how's progress with the vehicles?" Belisarius asked exasperatingly as he continued his sprinting away from the pursuing Orion Swords and GDI troopers.

"Over half of them, the 3rd Team got away quick since they at least went for the helicopters. How are you doing?" Horus asked calmly on the coms, only to hear Belisarius urgent voice piercing his ears and coms network. "Handling my admirers! I think Anubis may have made me a bit too eye catchy for these mortals liking." Said Belisarius with a bit of sarcasm.

"I hear you, suggest you retreat back to the depot with your wolf pack, I'll try and get you all out in one last go." Horus suggested while flying back to Caserma from the Tartarus, he flew across the sky towards the Italian Peninsula. Back in Caserma, the QRF were coming towards the vehicle depots riding on humvees and MRAPs and trucks.

They began to corner the remaining wolves inside the inner vehicle depot where Charlie, the other robots, Belisarius and Arminius were dug in. The humans who attempted to assault were struck down with a rippling barrage of stun rounds, the men who waded forward from around corners or any other places were hit in the center mass, they fell down twitching like they were tazed.

In retaliation the GDI machine gunners on their M2 Brownings began to unload on the robots out of anger firing loudly as fast as their weapon allowed it to destroy their enemies. "Cease fire damn it! Cease fire!" Grady called out, trying to rein in his troops who were slowly becoming frustrated and angry by the apparent lack of engagements and clear cut fight they were spoiling for.

"But sir they just shot our guys!" One of the GDI airborne soldiers retorted in confusion and annoyance. "And they didn't use live rounds either, don't shoot them with live rounds and they won't shoot you. I think…" He ordered them albeit with a bit of hesitant. As Joe and his Orion Sword snipers took up positions around the vehicle depot, the robot wolves were gathering around the vehicles, hanging on the side or mount themselves on the top instead of simply crew them.

Something was not right, Joe could tell that they were planning for something but he had no frame of reference to understand what exactly are they doing. His snipers kept their sights trained on the robots while he himself kept his observation on Belisarius, there were so many questions in his head as he tried to make sense of what he was looking at when suddenly Horus slammed on the ground, blinding the mortals with a brilliant flash of light before using his teleportation ultimate ability.

Seeing the falcon crown prince landed, Joe jumped from his sniper nest and hastily fired off a single round at Belisarius chest. But this round wasn't a standard FMJ, or LaPua Magnum or .50 cal anti material round. Rather it latched onto Belisarius chest and flashed a green hue light on the top of its length.

For them, they saw the vehicles and the ground there was glowing an intense light before the light ignited like a flashbang, blinding everyone within range before disappearing completely. What they saw was an empty depot without a single vehicle left, the robots were gone as well, leaving them to ponder what was next.

"What the hell!? What the hell!? They were just right here and they're gone. What the hell is going now!?" Jason blurted out and flabbergasted, confused and utterly baffled by what had just taken place. "You guys got them all on records and replays?" Jason asked, looking around the other troops around him and predictably all of whom nodded since everyone had helmet cams.

Joe Marshall came over to Jason after getting off of his sniper nest showed Jason his PDA projecting a holographic map showing a GPS transponder of where the robot wolf was. And surprisingly enough for them, it was out in the Adriatic Sea, heading southward towards North Africa. "Nice work, at least we can track them. But what happened to you? You looked like you saw a ghost." Jason asked, but not quite aware that his question seem to hit home for Joe, "In fact… I think I did." He replied tersely leaving Jason even more confused and clueless on what has been happening lately.

Aboard the Tartarus, celebratory mood was in order for the Jackal Guards as the robot wolves disembarked from their captured vehicles and celebrated a job well done. Though the administrators counted less vehicles than they would like to have considering the massive size of the depot compared to the smaller strike force sent to steal them. Still, it was a miracle no one was left behind and no bloodshed occurred.

Anubis came down to the hangar, passing through the robot wolves to find Belisarius and Arminius sitting by a helicopter's open passenger cabin with Charlie. "Getting used to with each other?" Anubis asked, to which Belisarius nodded to his deity before giving a formal salute to Anubis, a Roman salute rather with Anubis returning the favor. "At ease Belisarius. And… it seems they left you a souvenir." Anubis remarked before removing the latched GPS transponder from Belisarius chest, it was like a small penny with a transponder light globe with a magnetic backside to stick on Belisarius. "My apologies Anubis, I should have…" he was interrupted by Anubis who kept the device in his hands examining it. "No matter, let them follow us, I believe we can make use of them." Anubis remarked nonchalantly.

"Are you sure sir? They might sink us." Arminius protested, Anubis didn't seem to mind the objection since he wanted his troops to be independent thinkers. "I'm certain of it. Their priority now is to track us, see where we are going and find out who we are. So preemptive shooting might lose them precious leads." Anubis reasoned nonchalantly while examining the GPS transponder device before turning around to go upstairs.

He went up two decks to the upper echelons of the ship, where Horus was waiting for him by a hologram war table, the digital display show him that some ships of the GDI's Mediterranean Sea had been mobilized to hunt them down. The closest was set sailing from Marseilles, to Anubis it was just Massalia. The furthest was from Athens converging around the boots of Italy and the Peloponnese Peninsula to cut them off.

"So what's the plan brother? Your other forces are waiting in Egypt but with these guys on us we'll never be able to make the rendezvous." Horus stated cautiously to Anubis. "I know that Horus. But I'm also gambling that they are trying to tail us and see where this whole thing would go, the extra ships and pincer move are for extra line of sights." Horus seems perplexed by Anubis's reasoning, he found it hard to believe and play along. "Fly first to Egypt, regroup forces that are already there, meet me at Port Said, Suez Canal."

Horus reluctantly nodded and sighed out before giving Anubis a brotherly hug, patting Anubis on the back. "Be careful out there Anubis, we don't want anything to happen to you or our troops."; "Safety and Peace be upon you, Horus." Anubis replied seeing his brother smirking under the robot face helm before exiting the room to fly off head first towards Egypt.

Anubis then looked back on the desk to press button, displaying to him a series of classified intel documents and reports. The white papers had the GDI Eagle logo on the top with various redacted lines to keep information classified, the most he got out of them were recurring mentions of "Archaeological Operation" and photos of a fortress ruins perching on a highland. "What are you looking for?" Anubis muttered while glancing over the documents.


	4. Chapter 4: First Contact

**(Author's note: the chapter you are reading now is a reworked from its original version. This entire story is undergoing a massive overhaul one chapter at a time. So you may have some contradicting information as you read the story, I will let you all know when will the overhaul is done.)**

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Chapter 4: First Contact

Athens, Greece

June 3rd, 2034, 05:42 Hours

Sheltered inside the hangars of Piraeus Port was a towering metal giant, a casual observer would have mistaken the giant for her more famous and beloved twin sister unit. But upon closer inspection, one would see the differences to alleviate twin confusions. Sleek, slender, feminine and angular, her violet/purple armor is much more advanced than what her sister Girain and the GDI made for Gojirin, the mate of Godzilla.

Her cyan colored eye optics are longer and more sharp in appearance giving off a threatening angry glare rather than older MFS unit armor. The red LED scars under her eyes trail back all the way to her cheeks. Her armor sports three sharp looking fins on top of her head pointing backward

More into her advanced design is how the armor looked to be crossed with a Rex Unit on certain points. Namely her lower arms look sharper and less organic compared to older MFS units. Her arms and legs sport much more angular looks to them sticking with geometric shapes rather than curvaceous organic looks. Her armor's dorsal plates also sport typical Rex unit design with rectangular shapes.

Under her armor however is an albino female Godzillasaur. Only it seemed Orion Sword biologists took to going a step further and actually studying which parts of the DNA to alter creating an artificial evolution in Godzillasaurs. Each of her scales are elongated and sharp looking as well as being shallow. Her flesh appears to be smoother and with decreased recesses between each scale.

However, she also appears to have seamless lines like an action figure between each of her body joints like elbows, ankles, wrists, and knees; while also sporting some circular outlets around her body for her armor to synch with her nervous and muscle systems. She herself is a lot thinner and more agile in appearance than normal less evolved Godzillasaurs.

Her scales were all elongated completely while looking more shallow on her skin. In fact her flesh appeared to have indented panels lines in her like an action figure by her own joints. Stranger, she had small circular indents in her flesh and ports where her armor simply snapped on with ease. Her eyes both had the signature MFS line scar underneath them both as well in a blue coloration.

Her dorsal plates looked angular as well like knife blades or the same dorsal plates shiryu had only made of natural bone materials. as well on her flesh were panels where various cyborganic compartments and holding areas were for concealed weapon and jets in her legs proving she was a forced evolution and a cyborg.

"Aaaah" she moaned softly as she stretched herself while being out of her armor, "What a perfect day, can't wait to see my adoring Hellenic crowds. I hope those humans remember to bring me some offerings." She said with a mock high and mighty tone entertaining the thought of being worshipped by humans like her Olympian namesake.

And almost right away, her right ear rumbled with the incoming call of her handler and human superiors. She sighed out feeling like her day had been ruined almost right away, she sucked it up and bit her lip before tapping her right ear to dial in. "Yeah I'm listening boss man." She remarked casually while doing some morning push ups, cracking her joints.

"Hera, I need your help for something here. You're not gonna believe this but the vehicle depot in Caserma has just been raided. Most of the Orion Sword vehicles there along with the GDI stuffs just got… how should I say this? Teleported out, like all of them!" Jason informed with a slight stuttering and heavy breathing.

Hera can tell by Jason's voice that he was hyperventilating but his words didn't click with her one bit. "Wha-wait a minute Jason honey, you're telling me that you guys got robbed blind? And all the vehicles there had been stolen? How is that possible?" She asked while blinking her eyes, hearing Jason making a thick gulp in confusion. "Jason honey are you alright? Please don't tell me you're gonna die because I asked you something you can't answer." She sarcastically asked Jason making him rather confused.

"Sorry Hera, look it's just that things happened without any rhymes or reasons. Me and Joe were still trying to put things in order but neither of us know where to start. Just that… Joe looks like he saw a ghost." Hearing the statement, Hera became even more confused than before especially when she heard that something happened to Joe Marshall. "Wait. What happened to Joe? I need to know this."; "Alright so well uh… Joe didn't say much in details. Other than he said… one of them sounds like Mr. Grey, sounds exactly like Mr. Grey only much more robotic and monotonous."

"Them? Who are they? Jason this is getting really bizarre and creepy." Hera shuddered, her voice though however feminine they might sound over the translation vocal collar on her neck, was beginning to show signs of concern for him. It was out of character for her to display signs of genuine empathy and sympathy, but such a feat was far from rare. "We managed to get a good look at them, a bunch of robot wolves, like the werewolf or something coming out of Sci-Fi cartoon shows. I'll send you footage we got soon, suit up alright, we'll meet you in Cyprus before we head to Egypt."

She nodded and stood up cracking her neck, "Roger that Jason. And take care alright, I hate to tell my sister the bad news of you being locked up inside a mental asylum." Hera added before hanging up on Jason and began to don her MFS armor. The armor was practically a whole piece, all she needed was set her foot and arms into their sockets from behind before settling her tail section into an armored cocoon segment for it. The entire suit collapsed in from behind, sealing her inside with her dorsal spines being protected by armored sections with amplifiers to conduct her pulsing atomic breath.

"Some morning this turn out to be." She grumbled while the Orion Sword and GDI technician in Piraeus scrambled to ready her deployment by handling her weapons and the usual gadgets. Her railgun's slugs built into her wrists and a laser pistol inside her thigh holster compartment, shockwave bombs that can be launched from her upper arms and both sides of her chest. And alongside those was her whiplash that went along with her dominatrix personality. Including the surrobot unit for her to operate, a small robot designed to look like a human size Hera so she can operate in small and confined spaces that require finesse.

[hr]

Not far from where she was, on the shores of Egypt, the day was dawning slowly under the ray of Ra with Port Said being one of the early wake ups thanks to it being the furthest East an Egyptian city can be. By the 2nd Mast of Port Said's Suez Canal, Horus was seen pacing back and forth on the pier waiting for the Tartarus to arrive. Accompanying him were additional vehicles and robot wolves of the Jackal Guards manning those vehicles, namely trucks and support vehicle variants. Soon enough the cruise ship was arriving at the 2nd Mast of Port Said's industrial port.

Once the ship came to a stop by the pier with its causeway, extended out for disembarking the troops, Horus saw that Anubis was the first to come off the ship followed by the Roman wolves and Charlie following closely. "Thank the heavens you're safe! I was worried that you're stuck behind because of something went wrong." Horus exclaimed jubilantly before running to give Anubis a bear hug to the best of his avian body. "If they did, I wouldn't let them have the pleasure of waterboarding me." Anubis remarked, returning the hug with one of his own.

"I have good news for us, the Egyptian authorities of this realm still recognize their Gods though they may worship the Abrahamic Lord. They'll let us through since what choice do they have?" Horus stated to Anubis as the two brothers share their accomplishments, of course it didn't take long for Horus's words to take effect as they saw Humvees of Egyptian Army heading into the port. "Well well well, the welcoming committee has arrived." Said Anubis sarcastically as he crossed his arms. The humvees lined up and the passengers of the vehicles disembarked from their vehicles and came up to Anubis and Horus.

One of them was a slightly porky Egyptian army officer wearing a red beret on his head and Desert Camouflage uniform. He was seen with a green combat vest over his uniform to protect him from incoming fire with a name tag on his chest that said "Lt. Abdullah Faisal". "Are you in command of this particular Platoon?" Anubis asked him, to which the officer nodded.

"Yes sir, I am in command of these men, I must inform you that I don't take deities in general seriously but the situation requires me to accept it regardless." Said Lt Abdullah Faisal as he shook Anubis's hands. "Very well, I can't force the population of Egypt to worship me and my pantheon like 5000 years ago. But at the very least I can protect them." Anubis stated sternly to the Lieutenant who nodded to him and showed him to the Humvees waiting for him.

The convoy would soon drive the Jackal Guards robots off towards the Sinai namely towards a town named Arsinoe by the coast, following the humvees in the lead were trucks hauling the Egyptian troops collaborating with Horus and Stryker transports ferrying robots. Other trucks were seen hauling the massive hulking four arms robot jackals in a long convoy heading towards Arsinoe.

Belisarius and Arminius were inside one of the Stryker ICVs as the former Roman emperor turned robot warrior sat next to Charlie, who glanced around taking in the silent and oddly statuesque robots around him. He felt oddly out of place knowing that he was the minority of talkative individuals in Anubis's personal army. "So… anybody here a veteran?" He asked sheepishly expecting an answer.

"Negative, no combat units here have participated in any prior operations." Said a robot wolf sitting across Belisarius as it held its weapon in hands with both hands holding the barrel and weapons muzzle, resting the buttstock on the floor of the Stryker as the vehicle rumble across the desert road.

Belisarius turned to Charlie though and nodded his head. "Me and Arminius. Legionary from youth to adulthood, then emperor the rest. By popular demands. I feel the battlefield has been calling for me though. If not then why am I here right now?" Belisarius quipped dryly as he was rocked around by the vehicle as it traversed over desert.

"Well I guess I am the greenhorn then. The only greenhorn here." Said Charlie in a grim realization as the Stryker came to a stop by the town of Arsinoe, the rear ramp dropped down allowing the troops to disembark. He followed Belisarius and Arminius out of the Stryker ICV seeing the robots were moving into the ancient Egyptian settlement to make themselves at home by the abandoned Roman encampment.

"Set up our HQ in the Temple of Thoth there, and get some patrols out to survey the area as well." Anubis ordered the robots, sending his mechanical warriors into a flurry of activities as they unpack their communication equipment and satellite dishes on the roof of the temple of Thoth.

The inner courtyard where a large Banyan tree stood with its roots burrow deep into the ground was soon transformed into a makeshift Field HQ for Anubis while Charlie was busy helping Belisarius and Arminius dusting off the old bedding of the Roman fort. "I doubt these can stand our weights anymore." Said Charlie as the dust flew off of the wooden beds.

Belisarius seems to nod in agreement as he helped Arminius lift away some of the broken and worn out bedding around the temple. Each time he lifted away even a sheet a pack of spiders would scurry away while form the bedding themselves thick stringing mound of cobwebs hung from the floor and the sheets themes.

"Disgusting. I just assume this realm has less influence still form the gods. If they have forgotten about them. No we'd need to uplift this setting to make it even Ergonomic for the soldiers." Belisarius stated.

"Indeed, the mortals here need us just as Rome would." Said Arminius as he was removing some of the dirty furniture out of the temple with the other robots as they put together a military encampment with some basic communication and observation posts.

[hr]

Yet, not far from Arsinoe, out in the vast expanses of the Sinai trackless desert, vehicles were seen skirting across the desert sand, kicking up a trail of dust as they raced across the desert towards their objectives. "Maintain formation going into radio silence mode now. Ezekiel Detachment, break off and launch diversionary raid against enemy patrol." Said a raspy male voice on the radio.

"Affirmative command, Ezekiel section detaching now." As the order was heeded, about four buggies split off from the main group heading out into the desert close to the highway between Arsinoe and the Northeastern border between Israel and Egypt. They raced across the sand dunes in a wedge formation before fanning out along the road letting their passengers disembarked.

[hr]

Back at Arsinoe, the Jackal Guards have settled into the town with Belisarius and Arminius were resting with the other robots. They were not expecting much actions for the time being as the downtime made Charlie a bit anxious and nervous.

He sat down with the others polishing and cleaning his weapon. Disassembling and reassembling the weapon over and over again to kill time. The Lieutenant of the Egyptian Army was seen talking to Anubis while heading towards his Army command Humvee.

"I've reported to my COs and higher ups, it would seem that you will be staying here until you deem fit to leave. We're told not to disturb you unless it's necessary for the time being." Said Lieutenant Faisal as he came to the door of the Humvee and entered the vehicle. "I wish you a safe trip to where your duty required. I'll be in touch." Anubis stood back and waved off the Lieutenant as his Humvee was driving away from Arsinoe heading out towards the desert.

As the gathered Jackal Guards took a break for some R&R for themselves Belisarius watched as Charlie reassembled and disassembled his gun over and over repeatedly again and again noting his anxious behavior. "Worried about a possible ambush? It doesn't hurt to keep yourself relaxed once. It builds a more ready sharper mind. Keep your mind though prepared. Right now outside I wager our watchmen and defences should spot anything of suspicion. For now we have orders for R&R." Belisarius said as laid next to Arminius.

Arminius who was sitting on the ground crossed legs next to Belisarius too let out a sigh feeling an emptiness coming over him, a feeling of anxious desire for combat and actions so he wouldn't be driven insane by the inactions.

"If only we were first on watch, I'm sure we would see more of those assailants like the ones attacked us in Rome." Said Arminius but his wish was soon granted in a sudden when the radio they were guarding began to sound static and grainy before followed by the voice of the Egyptian Army soldiers calling for help.

"To anybody out there! This is Griffin 3-1, we've been ambushed- C-casualties! *Zzzzz* Need relief force now!" The voice of Lieutenant Faisal called out from the radio. "I need someone to get out there and rescue them now! Belisarius, Arminius, take a squad with you two and see to it!" Anubis ordered them on the coms as he dispatched a Stryker ICV transport to carry Belisarius, Arminius and Charlie with an attached squad of six other Robot Wolves.

Belisarius and the others quickly got to their feet. Of course Belisarius made a less than pleased look at Arminus feeling he just jinxed them. It didn't matter though now as Belisarisu got himself weaponed up and loaded onto the transport vehicles. "There's our trouble Arminius… it would have come sooner or later. But this is a lot sooner than expected. They don't seem to be waiting, or willing to wait." Belisarius spoke.

"Oh great, here we go again." Charlie grumbled as he sat inside the cramped passenger compartment of the Stryker as the vehicle went out of Arsinoe heading north along the same highway as the Egyptian Humvee.

Along the way the squad members kept their calm composure, the robot ones only. Charlie was a bit anxious as the vehicle came close to the last known location of the Humvee, "Sighted transport vehicle of Egyptian Army Griffin 3-1 unit. Disembark infantry force."

"Affirmative, moving out now." One of the robots stated as they disembarked from the Stryker with the rear ramp lowered letting them out. Charlie ran out to the right hand side and immediately went prone with his bullpup assault rifle in hand aiming at the sand dunes scanning for targets. "The Humvee is but a wreck, I think I see the Lieutenant on the ground." Said Arminius as he pointed to the person lying on the ground with red beret on his head, clearly Faisal didn't have the best of luck.

"Damn." Belisarius grunted. He got himself up, but in a low crouch as he led the team of guards towards the wreckage. He stopped though suddenly and rose the back of his fist to his squad. He swirled his head back and forth scanning the desert and humming. "I sense an ambush. They expect us to come help the wounded. One we get close we could be swarmed ourselves. They are ruthle using the dead as a trap. I feel they are trying to use our will to help the wounded against us…" Belisarius warned.

His suspicion wasn't too far off as he would find, muzzle flashes were soon sighted along a sand dune ridgeline with a pair of light machine guns raining down on them from higher elevation.

The bullets pelted at the robots sending off sparks and ricochets while leaving them mostly unscathed from the incoming rain of lead. "Contact, hostile machine gunners, 300 meters 11 o'clock." Said one of the robots designated CLU-01192 as the robot dived to the ground and return fire with its assault rifle firing on full auto. Bursts were returned at the two machine gunners, kicking off sands to obscure their sights while the others move up.

"Contact, 12 o'clock enemy rifleman 150 meters." The robot wolf designation CLU-01189 called out targets as it crouched down open firing at the Viper Operatives hiding behind nearby bushes and palm trees.

The enemies would then return fire at the robots firing their A-91M rifles at them pelting bullets off of their armor. A grenadier of the Vipers fired off a grenade landing a direct hit on the chest of a robot wolf, the grenade exploded and leaving a large dent on its chest and a gaping hole that left the robot unit crippled.

The Viper forces clearly weren't ones to relent from a fight. Their ambush seems to be doing well for them as the Jackals were held to the ground trudging along through the desert slowly.

Belisarius though being more armored up and tankier got out of his own cover and immediately hurled himself towards the enemy Vipers using his agility and more well crafted body as a way to get closer to them.

His weapon of choice though for now was his own palm implanted laser which fired a singing hot beam of blue energy at the dunes creating a large enough explosive plume of dust to blind the Vipers temporarily as he moved in closer.

Once in optimal range he lept uwpards into the air. His thigh compartment to his right popped open before firing the hilt of his plasma sword out, and in mid air his right hand caught the sword causing a flame of cyan to shoot out from the hilt before solidifying into a sharp laser gladius.

He managed to land on one of the Vipers on the ground burying his heavy feet into the soldier's chest while his gladius stabbed into the soldier's chest. Even Belisarius seems stunned by his own ability to perform. Ut remarks seemed to be saved for later as he got up as quick as he could set his eyes on the other Viper troops ahead of him. "Have at it! I'll see to it your entrance to the underworld will be quick. It's your choice if you want this apiless or not." Beliarius boasted in a stern almost angry battle fueled voice.

His troops would then make a sprint forward trying to catch up to him and protect their squad leader, the limping crippled robot made its last ditch effort to get inside the Stryker and resume opened the rear top hatch coming out of the passenger area to spot target. "Affirmative, target confirmed, engaging now." The Stryker gunner controlled the turret looking at the sight of an enemy AT Gunner carrying a large RPG-30 launcher on their back. The target was lit up by Charlie's laser designator mounted on the side rail of his rifle as the gunner opened fire on him immediately.

"Contact, 2 o'clock, enemy Machine gunners, target 200." One of their robots shouted as Arminius ducked down, crouching by the wrecked Humvee and opened fire on the incoming enemies that were moving across the sand dunes.

His electronic eyes and combat HUD allowed him to zoom in on the target getting a better view at him as he opened fire. His HUD showed a series of arching trajectories of his bullets as they flew out of his weapon's barrel. "I've got him!" Arminius shouted as he reloaded his weapon, he discharge the expended ammo drum and placed it on his utility belt mount and grabbed the next drum to reload his weapon.

"Heads up I'm seeing more of them coming our way, aww man, there's 4 buggies and I think they got miniguns mounted!" Charlie dived to the ground to take some potshots at the buggies, targeting the drivers first. The fast moving angular buggies with hexagonal digital camo patterns swiveled and made dodging maneuvers to confuse his aims however as they rolled onto the dunes and around bushes and palm trees before opening fire on Belisarius with their Miniguns.

Some of the minigun shots hit Belisarius on his chassis barely doing anything. Scratching the paint work on his body, but as he was fired upon he made off running to cover. Or at least attempting to since the coverage of the area was limited. It seemed to him he needed to tank it out. His body seemed well capable of doing so already. "What else do I have in this arsenal? What's useful to me?" he quickly asked to himself as his HUD display a list of weapons to him.

An important one being the should missile packs built into shoulders. Instantly after selecting them his shoulder panels opened up and fired a large barrage of missiles that hisses flinging through the air almost like a swarm of angered bees heading towards the convoy of buggies. Belisarius stood and watched as his body's power still getting himself used to what it held for him.

The missile swarms found their targets after gaining altitude in the air and slamming down on the fragile buggies, blowing them apart sending the vehicles flying into the air before falling to the ground burning husks and the crew crawling out writhing in pain.

Other Viper troopers were seen firing their weapons recklessly at Arminius and Charlie as the rest of the squad and the Stryker moved up flushing out the ambush forces. "They're suicidal, they didn't even plan an escape route for themselves." Said Arminius in a suspicious tone, noticing how the enemies stubbornly held their ground and fought to the bitter end. "Do you think they're here to just to piss us off for the lulz?" Charlie asked confusedly.

One of the Viper troopers ran up to a robot wolf designated CLU-01188 and detonated a large packs of explosives he was carrying, the blast sent the robot lupine falling on its back rolling on the sand dune with severe charred sections and damages on its chassis.

"CLU-01188 combat diagnostic, suffered severe damages to combat chassis. Request immediate salvage and evacuation." The robot transmitted its request verbally as it struggled to pick itself up crawling slowly towards the Stryker ICV.

Belisarius took note of the injuries, and fell back after seeing CLU-01188 fallen. He pounded his feet across the desert sands as he ran over to help the robot wolf. He reached his arms out and wrapped a massive hand around one side of the robot on one of the sides before hoisting it upwards. All of that without stopping his momentum in his dashing bilites.

"Medic! Cover for 88, keep your senses out for suicide vests!" Belisarius ordered as he darted his vision around looking for any medical utilities. As he looked around he saw the Stryker vehicle that was fighting alongside them dropped the rear ramp down allowing him to place the wounded inside the vehicle for safety.

The other wounded robot with a hole in its chest was inside the Stryker firing out of the vehicle's top hatch to ward off the enemies. "Deposit damaged combat unit inside, we will conduct MEDEVAC back to base." The robot wolf on the top hatch stated to Belisarius as he used his rifle to cover the tankier robot.

Belisarius acknowledged, and set down the partly beaten up robot down while grumbling to himself. "We should probably call a tactical retreat while we still have a chance to do so. I don't think these barbarians are merciful types. They'll butcher us." Belisarius said with a mouthful of disgust in his voice. He turned around and saw how the battle was.

He saw that the robots of his squad were retreating to him as they fan out to form a diamond formation to keep the enemies off. Charlie was seen dragging the deceased human Lieutenant away from the wrecked Humvee towards the Stryker. Once he was near enough, he picked the Lieutenant up in his hands and brought him inside the Stryker and laid him down on his back respectfully. The robot wolves would then embark on the transport one by one with Arminius covering their entry before getting onboard himself with Belisarius.

"Phalanx, this is Hoplite we've encountered hostile forces ambushing Griffin 3-1 patrol. They're all dead, we managed to retrieve Lt. Faisal in the process but we've sustained two wounded, Over." Charlie reported to Anubis as the Stryker ICV rolled its wheels back away from the ambush site heading home to Arsinoe.

On the communication network, Anubis's voice was heard calling to them apparently acknowledging the urgency of the situation. "Hoplite-6 Romeo, understood loud and clear. RTB immediately for refit. We'll launch a second combat recon patrol within the hour to hunt down the rest. Stay sharp." Anubis's voice was rather grainy and static over the radio but was still carrying the vigor and flare of leadership he had from his youth commanding the earlier incarnation of the Jackal Guards.

"Roger. You heard him. Pull back. Well get them next time." Belisarius stated in a less than pleased voice as he stayed inside of the Stryker. He placed a couple of fingers between his eyes and let out a deep sigh, feeling the intensity of the last battle weigh him down. "Something just doesn't change. Gauls, Goths, there would always be suicidal berserkers. I'm starting to see why Anubis chose me." Beliarius said.

"So do I, I thought that I wouldn't see berserkers like that anymore. But once again we're greenhorns." Said Arminius as he let out a sigh sound, his mechanical lungs expand and contract as he inhale and exhale, his HUD showed various informations on the air, chemical make ups that he wouldn't be familiar with until now. It was odd but one insight that he would welcome.

[hr]

Once the Stryker was back to base in Arsinoe and parked alongside other Strykers, Anubis saw the vehicle's rear ramp dropped down letting the robots offload. Two of them were seen carrying the battered unit out to the nearest designated repair station.

Another was carrying Lt. Faisal off the vehicle for forensic and buried while Arminius, Belisarius and Charlie were getting off of the Stryker vehicle with ammo casings expended the floor of the vehicle being filled with shell cases of expended cartridges. But nowhere was the sight of discarded ammo drums showing cautious economics from the robots.

As Belisarius stepped off he bowed his head respectfully to Anubis and cleared out his throat upon reporting to him. "We did what we could. It turns out Viper are insane. Each soldier I encountered were not in the slightest deterred by my own abilities or even with me charging right into their comfort zones. We need a new approach." Belisarius said.

Anubis nodded to Belisarius as he glanced over seeing Faisal being hauled off on a stretcher and a blanket over his body. "May the Hidden One walked you to the Afterlife. The Lord of the Duat awaits." the Jackal Deity conduct a funerary rite on the deceased mortal as he was being brought away before looking back at Belisarius.

"No doubt that they wouldn't mind blowing up monuments and commit war crimes for the fun of it. Don't take prisoners the next time." Said Anubis with a sigh while Charlie gulped thickly hearing his "Father" in a more grim tone on the battlefield.

Even Belisarius felt the words coming from Anubis's mouth were much more foreboding to these adversaries in particular. Though he nodded taking these words for truth. "Noted. I doubt they want mercy regardless. In any case we should set up a defensive barrier here if they have indeed followed us. But we need a serious change in strategy." Belisarius said.

"I'll see what can we do to whittle them down. For now you three are to head for Refit. It's to the West wing of the Temple." Said Anubis as he ushered the trio off to their refit station, leaving him to contemplate in the Courtyard of the Temple as he knelt down before the large Banyan tree of the Temple of Thoth.

The Tree of Life as it would be called due to its age and greenery in the arid land. He closed his eyes and exhaled a deep breath as the desert wind of the evening blew over him, rustling the leaves and branches. His meditation continued as he soon felt something odd, something gnawing at him like a hungry lion picking on its meal.

He opened his eyes and felt that something passed through him, a transparent apparition made from countless particles of sunlight, an anthro canine warrior looking identical to Anubis in appearance and proportion, the only difference he could tell was the bow and arrow quiver on its back.

The apparition placed his hands on the Tree's bark before disappearing instantly without a word. "What in the name of…? Who was that?" Anubis pondered feeling perplexed by the sight of the apparition.

[hr]

For Arminius and Belisarius, the most luxurious thing they had in their lives were palaces and country villa earned from services in the Legion. But here, back to basics, the most they can ask for was a fairly spacious tent. The place was staffed by two or three jackals who have yet to be augmented, the rest were automated robot arms working on damaged robots repairing their chassis, replacing damaged components and synchronize their data caches.

Belisarius and Arminius were standing next to one another with robot arms prying out bullets lodged into their bodies and muscles, others reform dented portions of their armor and welded new plates on them and repaint their chassis. At the end of the process they were having their bodies waxed and polished sparkling shiny like a new car.

Inspecting himself Belisarius nodded his appreciation to those who had fixed him up. He felt mentally healthier despite many of the armor or surface damages, none of them were critical that rotate him out of active duty.

"This is better. I was looking much worse for wear from Viper's relentless actions. Some of you however have not undergone the transformation into a mechanized form though. I find this strange, but I respect the decision regardless. If you are specifically medical staff." Belisarius said as he helped himself up. He then turned himself around to face Arminius to hoist him up with the grip of his hand.

"My thanks old friend, I'm starting to like this mechanical body a lot already and the treatment here no doubt earns Anubis's army their reputation." Said Arminius as he got up with Belisarius's hands helping him. He was now a sparkling shiny robot with purple coat of pain.

In fact Belisarius could see his own reflection on Arminius's body due to how well polished he was. "Shame that we'll get dirty again soon but then again it makes the treatment here much more desirable." Arminius commented as he got out of the tent with Belisarius.

As they did, high up in the sky, an F/B-47 drone was loitering around the Suez Canal area and it was zooming it's camera on the Arsinoe Temple of Thoth. IR night vision camera mode of the drone picked up Belisarius and Arminius walking about in the temple's ground with the robots working on each other, tending to their wounded, building up defensive, setting up traps, sensors and maintenance for their vehicles as more and more of them soon arrived from the Suez Canal Port Said area.

The lone drone being controlled by the GDI and Orion Sword had Joe watching the surveillance footage behind an operator almost micromanaging his work. Though with how large and bulky the man was it wasn't easy to maintain a sense of calmness with him literally over his shoulder. "Okay those two I think they're higher in command than the rest of em. We get any word about the situation there?" Joe asked. "Negative sir, we have radio chatter from local Egyptian army patrols in the area reported a skirmish with hostile forces." The operator remarked.

They were on a C-5 Galaxy plane with additional troops from Jason's battalion being airlifted towards Egypt to join up with GDI ground forces already available there. Embedded with them were the GDI Rangers and Orion Sword elite ninjas and special forces operators. The rangers were exoskeleton equipped soldiers armed with BRG-15 anti material Light Machine Guns mounted on mechanical harnesses.

As they watch and monitor the Jackal Guards going about their activities, gearing up their weapons and equipment, he noticed something odd coming up to the camp, a convoy of HEMTT Oshkosh trucks, 6 of them with an additional convoy of Stryker vehicles were heading towards the area of Arsinoe in the Sinai.

From the cold screen he saw from one of the trucks, various Robot jackals and wolves were disembarking from the vehicles and began their occupation of the town, setting up their motor pool and vehicle maintenance depot.

However, one thing caught his eye, one of the truck seems to have a robot Jackal that was oddly… cartoonish in appearance, the robot hopped off and was escorted by two taller bots to meet with Anubis who was seen talking to his son Charlie by some Humvees.

"My lord, the prototype has arrived as ordered." One of the robot jackals escorting the "Prototype" stated to Anubis, catching his attention and Charlie's own. "Ah excellent, leave us. Are you ready to serve?" Anubis asked the robot that was being presented to him.

The robot knelt down before Anubis and Charlie, bowing his head obediently and replied in a robotic baritone. "Affirmative my lord it would be honored. LU-C4510 Field Command unit at your disposal." The robot stated to Anubis, before the eyes of anyone who was watching, the robot appeared to be a blue chrome Jackal like machine with four dreadlock hanging on the back of its head.

Its eyes were red LED optics, much to the bizarre realization of both GDI and Orion Sword troops, it was a robot Lucario, a mechanical Pokemon in Anubis's service. "Rise, I shall have you disseminate information for our troops. Do not fail them, for you are their shepherd in the thick of fire and steel." Said Anubis in a rather religious oration as LU-C4510 raised his head and nodded.

Anubis however was stroking his chin thinking about something before stating his thoughts. "Come to think of it, you need a name. Leandros then, seeing that it's easy to remember." Hearing this the robot stare blankly at Anubis and Charlie for a moment as its red HUD registered his name verbally and saved it to the hard drive. "Affirmative, Unit Leandros received and registered designation. Thank you for your blessings." Said the robot.

Walking by the laptop screen, Lt. Colonel Nicolas Williams of the embedded 2nd Rangers Battalion currently had his eyes caught by the sight of the robot designated as Leandros. In his right hand was a GPS transponder and a carton of soy milk. Even after seeing the odd sight of a franchise character roboticized and place onto a serious battlefield he kept sucking his drink through the straw thinking of what to say by the bizarre thing.

"Uh. Is that a Pokemon? Is it? Is that a- what the fuck- is that a fucking Pokemon he's using to fight now? What is he doing and why is he doing it?" Nicolas said after finishing his sip of soy milk. "He's watching too many cartoons. Look it looks like he has one next to him now!" Nicolas said with some drips of milk still on his biker beard.

The others in the cargo bay area passed this off as one of his quips though he gave off at times when dealing with anything he deemed odd. "Yes Nick we see the robot too. Don't you think the whole situation here is bizarre? An actual god using a robot army to his work?" Joe asked in a dry voice causing Nick to take another sip of his soy milk before answering. "If this guy is a god why not use his fancy magical power to make an army of dead guys? Like in The Mummy movie?"

"Uh yeah that sounds about right for whatever that dog god guy thing." Said one of the Rangers with a nervous sheepish tone as he saw the robot being led by Anubis and Charlie to meet up with some other squads.

They saw that the robots there gearing up with about two squads arming their bullpup assault rifles, some other robots were seen packing M240Bs LMGs pilfered from GDI Armories in the Middle East, Central Asia. They saw that the machine gunners had an entire backpack dedicated to the ammo load with belt fed magazine, an exoskeleton and handler for the M240 to swivel around like the Smart Gun from Aliens.

Arminius was present there sporting one of the FAMAS like Bullpup Assault Rifle that was standard issued to the Jackal Guards, his version however had a rectangular grenade launcher module attached under the barrel, the module itself seemed to take its cues from either the FN EGLM for the SCAR-H and SCAR-L series.

The others around him carry mostly identical weapons, only one carried an M21 Marksman Rifle while another appeared to have a metal backpack on its back, Belisarius and Arminius's HUD would denote this one as the Field Mechanic to repair damaged bots to an extent.

Belisarius noted some of the new hardware on the field would help with the medical needs and damages of the robots. "What is the status of the one I pulled out myself? I think it was CLU-01188. How fast can they each get repaired here compared to, well, the more biological ones such as me and Arminius?" Belisarius asked.

"Estimated repair time, 4 hours sharp. CLU-01188 combat damages and experiences will have him promoted to lead small elements." The robot mechanic stated dryly to Belisarius as it was holding its rifle. Unlike other bots, the mechanic seems to have a dark navy blue chrome color armor with white panel lines on its body and highlights.

"Belisarius, Arminius, I need to introduce you to our new Combat Intelligence Analyst. He'll keep you informed in battle, feed him whatever intel you find and he'll provide the analysis for you." Anubis stated to Belisarius and Arminius as he gestured their attention towards the robot Lucario named Leandros. "Most peculiar design you've made thus far." Said Arminius.

Belisarius nodded in agreement to this looking over Leandros. Namely the canine snout seems to be a lot rounder and seems more like a German Shepherd like. Larger red eyes and the round and yet larger dreadlocks behind his head. "Indeed. He is not like canines I have seen before, and he seems to deviate much from what I have seen so far. Especially that… hairstyle?" Belisarius asked confused looking at the dreadlocks.

"I'll explain later when we have time. For now you two get going with the others, our SIGINT caught the Vipers holding out by a nearby town they're using its mosque and tower as an observation point to call in airstrikes on the Egyptian army in the region." Said Anubis as he gestured for them to board a Stryker ICV with Charlie following them.

Leandros in turn was seen sitting inside a Stryker CV (Command Vehicle) with slat armor on the hull and a remote control M2 turret. Inside the Stryker CV, Leandros was apparently equipped with computer terminals, Hubs for Tactical Battlefield LAN and Internet connections, multi-vehicle communication suites, Faraday cage like other vehicles to shield them from EMPs.

There Leandros sat down and grabbed the nearby USB wire and jacked its port into the outlet on the back of his head, he leaned back against his seat as the Stryker CV rolled out with two more Stryker vehicles, one ICV and an MGS. Charlie and Arminius felt that Leandros was tapping into them as their HUDs flashed with an announcement box stating "Combat Intelligence Analyst Unit authenticated. LU-C4510 Leandros Authenticated, establishing battlefield control standby." The box stated, as they felt Leandros was connected to them via wireless communication network and a shared 3D topographical map display of the region.

"Hmm. Interesting. We share friends and enemies it seems." Belisarius said sitting within the CV. Though less anxious now knowing the forces would be more connected. Even better for him seeing less concerns regarding the Fog of War. Though he still felt the mission success was in his hands, and as Romans, lead from the front was a necessity.

"All combat units, dismount and assume combat positions, enemy forces sighted dug into the town, watch out for civilians being held hostage." Said Leandros as the Stryker vehicles stopped in their tracks and fanned out.

The rear ramps dropped down letting the squads dismount from the vehicles, Arminius was seen hopping off with Belisarius and Charlie, the other vehicle dismounted an additional 9 robot jackals as they fanned out protecting each others.

"Alpha Squad, take up offensive formation, Bravo Squad assume overwatch position on the dune nearby." Belisarius stated mechanically, lacking his usual vigors oddly enough. Even when he was calm outside the field of battles, he would still sound much more humanlike. But the robots heeded and execute their general orders nonetheless, demonstrating Belisarius skill in command hasn't faded with time.

Charlie and Arminius followed Belisarius and their fellow robot wolves into a wedge formation as they came up on the sand berms looking at the sleepy Egyptian town in front of them. The settlement appeared to be a more modern one with paved highway, convenient stores on the outskirts and open air market in the middle of town along with a gas station.

Seeing the rather normal town ahead of them the quietness of the place sent a rather cautious shudder down Belisarius spine. A bad feeling sat in the pit of his mechanical stomach knowing something was off. "Keep low and move up, there isn't much cover so we'll have to hump the ground. Its seems this place has come a long way since horse and chariots." Belisarius stated as he moved up from the sand going to the nearest gap to find a way into the town. Though his eyes were locked on the ground for any type of defensive traps. "Eyes out for landmines or any trap. They'll hunt us if we pull anything." Belisarius warned.

"Surprise motherfuckers!" came the voice of a slightly high pitched male operator with an insane tone to himself, no doubt that this was one of Vipers own. In front of their electronic optics, the Viper troops sprung up from the sand that they buried themselves in with their bullpup A-91M rifles in hand, two of the Vipers were seen carrying 6P41 PKP Pecheneg LMGs. They fired on the robots furiously only to have their bullets bounce off or ricochet off elsewhere.

Arminius seeing this fired his grenade launcher on the enemies, blowing them off of the dune that they were occupying. "Veni, Vidi, Vici." Arminius stated as he reloaded his grenade launcher. Once they were on the dune seeing the gas station and various apartment blocks in front of them, the enemies who were dug in and hidden from them were now opening fire on the incoming robot wolves and jackals.

"Well at least we didn't technically blow our covers." Charlie sarcastically stated as he dolphin dived down to the ground and crawl on his stomach, he return fired at distant enemies trying to pop them off from a distant but finding his weapon lacking in range. The Stryker MGS vehicle came up next to them on the highway and began to open fire on the apartment block with its HE shell, blowing up the 4th floor of the first apartment block. The explosion of the HE round kicked up dust and debris flying out of the windows followed by window frames falling off to the streets.

Belisarius then got up and began to return fire though frustrated the cover had been made null so quickly by the Viper's advanced deamors and tech. After the 4th floor's dust had settled he began to open fire on any straggling enemies keeping Anubis's words in his mind about no prisoners. He had seen what they would do, it was better for them to die than be captured.

His gun rattled loud cackling bullets fligning into the floor dropping several Vipers as he began to move up again. Though with the possible civilian presence his shoulder rockets were less of an option. Rather he took his other weaponry to account selecting his plasma firing palm and immediately fired a beam of hot laser energy to anything in front of him. "What else am I permitted to use here. I've already phased out use of the rocket shoulders for reason. The Strykers will provide enough destruction here as is." Belisarius commented.

True to his assessment, the Stryker MGS was firing off another round into the next apartment block, blowing through the enemies hiding on the 5th floor of the second apartment. The MGS vehicle then began to roll its wheels heading closer to the town while Charlie and Arminius were following Belisarius as they work through the town.

It soon dawned on them that the town was too large for a small squad like them and Bravo Squad to handle. Although they were robots, their lack of number may leave them vulnerable to the enemy ambushes or let them slip through their fingers.

Charlie tapped on his right ear and called up Leandros while crouching down behind Arminius for security. "Thorax this is Hoplite, we need immediate reinforcements, the town is too large for us to take on our own." Leandros on the network replied to him with a mechanical tone acknowledging his concerns and request.

"Affirmative Hoplite. Reinforcements dispatched to your AO, callsign Leonidas and Themistokles, they will block off enemy escape routes to the East." the robot Lucario stated to them as the robot squad began to make their way down the streets of the town, they saw additional Vipers were firing on them from the Police Department and Mosque of the town as the Stryker ICV and MGS were lurching up to assist them in urban combat.

Seeing the police department over run with viper troops already signaled to Belisarius the mortal police and combat forces were helpless on their own. Or only playing for time. Thinking the worst for the officers of the department, but not wanting to cause any more unnecessary destruction he pulled out his laser gladius again and dashed towards the building. Only using car and his bulk as well as his speed to avoid a hail of bullets.

His bulk however caused many car roofs to become caved in if indeed he did hop over them. However, after getting closer to the police station he used the gladius to chop and slash through many of the vipers standing in his way.

His agility, combined with sturdy construction of his robot body managed to throw the Vipers out of their defensive works, on the ground, any foes unlucky enough to come up against him got themselves disemboweled while their other comrades were quickly picked off by Charlie's marksmanship.

Arminius seeing Belisarius in the thick of the action quickly drew his own laser gladius and dashed towards the enemies. His feet cratered the road as he flung forward and decapitated the head of a Viper Grenadier. He kicked the headless corpse flying into the nearby pack of foes and fired his palm mounted laser cannon at them, killing them in a single shot.

As they were pushing the enemies back from their defensive works, the Vipers ran back to the Mosque, detonating various explosives rigged around the town, leveling most of the place to block their axis of attacks. "Hoplite, this is Leonidas, we're set up on the Eastern side of town. Providing sniper support and overwatch to you now." The robots of Leonidas Detachment informed them over the radio as they were heard firing their long range sniper rifles piercing concrete blocks and blowing enemies to bloody gory bits.

Charlie himself was now leading the charge with other robot wolves heading towards the Mosque, firing off potshots at any Vipers that popped their heads up. "They haven't blown up the Mosque, let's hope they won't have the time to do that." Said Charlie as he crept forward with the other robots as they came up to the entrance of the Mosque.

Belisarius at the door held the back of his hand up to the other robots behind him before pointing two hands forwards. "Let's finish this. Expect them to have tear the place to shreds, and expect the worst of each of them." Belisarius stated before kicking down the door of the mosque.

With that moment he stunned the rest of the Vipers using the rockets from his shoulders to fire barrage at anything remaining to the best to his ability filling the mosque full of scattered missiles that filled the air full of smoke.

The Vipers inside the place began to dash around, ducking behind pillars and overturned furniture to return fire at Belisarius and Arminius as they were the most stood out of the pack. The other Jackal and Wolves began to flank around the grand assembly hall and opened fire, popping headshots one after another as they pushed deeper and deeper into the Mosque.

As they engaged the enemies, the Vipers apparently weren't giving up as expected, they fought to the bitter end, hurling grenades and even improvised weapons at the attackers, in the process, some robots were damaged and had to be taken out of the Mosque while Charlie continue the charge with Belisarius and Arminius.

By the time the clock struck 10:15 hours, the gunfire fell silent, the town was secured but at a heavy cost. The place was destroyed by rigged explosives, the Mosque was back in the Egyptian Army hands. But for Belisarius and Arminius, this was but a taste of the brutality and swiftness of Mechanized modern warfare.


	5. Chapter 5: Payback

**(Author's note: the chapter you are reading now is a reworked from its original version. This entire story is undergoing a massive overhaul one chapter at a time. So you may have some contradicting information as you read the story, I will let you all know when will the overhaul is done.)**

* * *

Chapter 5: Payback

As the Egyptian Army stepped in to assess the damages to the small town on the Sinai Peninsula, the growing concerns the Egyptian Army officials and the frowns were visible on their faces as they took notes of the demolished buildings, and controlled demolition methods. The entourage was consist of an Egyptian General heading the Border Guard troops of the Sinai wearing standard desert camouflage uniform and a red beret on his head.

Following him was his aide, an Army General with dark olive green beret on his head and his own aides. The observer following them was a GDI attache, Jason Grady. The most concerning thing for them though was the Viper's ability to infiltrate deep into the Sinai Peninsula.

"Too extensive." the Egyptian general stated to Jason with a frown pointing his pen at the rubble of the apartment block that was brought down. "Pretty concerning, basically Suez Crisis 2.0." Said Jason as he jotted down details on the destructions and the important details. They found on the ground were weapons and equipment with Israeli markings and serial codes. Other items they found were various extraordinary gadgets and equipment like optical camouflage, US made OICWs and experimental firearms.

"These are Israelis equipment. But recklessness is out of character." General Mohammed Nasser stated as he looked at some of the remains of the hostile combatants on the ground, they appeared to have digital hexagonal camouflage that no one else has. Their ballistic masks and arachnid goggles suggest that these paramilitaries were ridiculously well armed and backed, not something a nation alone could be capable of doing.

"Yeah well their recent escalation suggest character developments. In the wrong way." Said Jason while rubbing his chin about what these paramilitary might have been, their insignia was all he had to go on. A shoulder badge with a blood red viper silhouette wrapping around the globe with its maw devouring a pale white human skull.

XXXX

But on the outer edge of town, a news van was parked by the highway with a cameraman recording his news anchorman as he delivered a news report of the incident. "Wartorn Ras Sedr, Sinai Peninsula. Once a small, quiet community on the Sinai's Western Coast now a rubble. This is Greg Burdette reporting live on the Aftermath of GDI's heavy handed Counter Insurgency tactics and the insane consequences they left behind in their wake. Yet another victim of their crazed campaign of global domination in the wake of the Orion War that they use as excuses to expand their dominions over the globe." The reporter continued, trying his best to make his bizarre eschewed report and paint the GDI to be as insane as possible.

But as he was making his report, his cameraman suddenly pointed upward to the sky out of curiosity for something, this infuriated Gregg who called out his cameraman. "Hey focus on me you idiot!" Gregg's scowl and scorn fell on deaf ears when he looked up to the sky as well, only to be greeted by the sight of an aggressive looking robot eagle drone spying on them, one look at the robot bird and he knew its intent. Without saying a word, he turned tail and ran as fast as he could towards the news van as his cameraman ran along, the eagle dived down on top of him with its chest split open revealing a buzzsaw intending to slice them up.

The bird upon closing in on them, appeared to have a darker royal blue hue on its frame, contrast with crimson red wings and metal feather and optics. The bird swoop down, narrowly missing Gregg's head and left his hat cut in two. Terrified by the vicious bird, Gregg and his cameraman scurried into their news van and ran as fast as possible out of the area while being harrassed by the robot eagle strafing run using a pair of missiles mounted on its wings to blow the vehicle off the road.

XXXX

Further away from the journalist's ambush, Anubis was in Arsinoe where his troops were still gathering and and build up strength for their future operations. For the time being the Jackal Deity was taking a walk over to the barracks of the town, or rather the improvised makeshift barracks situated within the old military fort of Arsinoe.

These were merely tents set up inside the high walls built from mud bricks that still stood the test of time under the shades of Thoth's Tree of Life. These tents had camouflage nets over them to hide them from aerial reconnaissance. Anubis took a quick glance at the tents on either sides, noting that the accommodation was not the orthodox ones.

In fact, none of them were meant to house living beings or physical manifestations of souls of the dead like he did in the past. Instead of bunk beds, each tent had a row of 10 metal pads for robot wolves or jackals to stand on, they would be on standby mode in the process with their head lowered down in sleep mode to rest and allow their programming to be updated and memories stored.

Each one of them had a cable lodged into their neural outlet port and another into their tail hole lifting their tail up slightly to charge them up. But the one he was interested in for the moment was a light grey robot wolf with slight tan armor. The robot was standing upright like the others with a cable attached to his neural outlet and a cable lodging into his tail hole, his body was in standby mode until Anubis came to his side and tapped on his forehead a bit.

The Jackal deity smiled slightly as he glanced up and down the robot, noticing the beefy thighs of this robot wolf in particular and his sexually attractive form that pleases the eyes of others. This one appeared to have digital grey and silver pixel ACU camouflage pattern, his chest appeared to have a serial code with a full name oddly enough. CLU-00591 "Earl Lupis".

His amber tinted LED optics flashed online as he was able to see Anubis visiting him. "Morning Earl, sorry for keeping you in a barracks like this but we have to make use of any space we have, not exactly a 5 star hotel." Said Anubis with a light smile on his muzzle to Earl Lupis. He moved his right hand on Earl's left shoulder rubbing and squeezing it gently with his synthetic paw pads.

After he woke up Earl made a smile back to Anubis as well. After much of the incidents prior to the one happening now the two warmed up together it seemed. He could feel his anal cavity intruded though by a cable sitting snugly in his body. Not a private moment, and not a position he would like to be in, but this was clearly one of the best places for him to feel safe in if he were to look like this.

He was quickly seized on his lips by Anubis' passionate kiss, he smiled to this in a moment and gladly sighed out in blissful pleasure, he moved his lips apart gently, welcoming Anubis's tongue into his mouth as he licked its large carpet like size with his own.

His body has yet to fully engage its motor function though but for the moment, it was an odd but satisfying experience for him to just focus his mind on the kiss and not moving his body around.

His brain felt ecstasy and excitement when he felt Anubis moving his right hand down his waists and thighs. Something he and Anubis has grown fond of overtime, the sight of their robot bodies and their genuine love for one another.

He cleared his throat out and then spoke in a gruff rather aged voice. "Uh hey. About time I woke up. Definitely not the ideal hotel room I can certainly say. Heh. Can i get down now please? I think i'm all charged up. Ready to get outta here." Earl said in a more confident tone once his HUD informed him "Unit 591 Combat Chassis Motor Function now online."

Anubis smiled to Earl as he helped disengaged the charging cable on his tail hole and put it down in a coil under Earl's feet. Anubis then removed the cable on Earl's neural outlet port and helped him walked out of the charging and resting pad he was standing on and put his arm over Earl's shoulder.

"It's been quite a day for Charlie and some of the other bots on patrol we'll need your help soon Earl. Good news is we got the tool for you to use." Said Anubis as he patted Earl's back and moved his hand around to hold Earl's abdomen from behind, cuddling him closer.

Earl grunted with pleasure making a sharp gruff as he was hugged from behind. He could feel Anubis's rather toned muscular body moving up against his own. Rather pleasurable, and he smiled warmly before he moved his right hand upwards to rub Anubis's forearms. "What you got a new machine for me to pilot? Well let's see what yah got. I'm itching to get into the air in this place. Whatever dimension this is." Earl replied.

Anubis would then lead Earl out of the barracks through its gate to an open ground near the beach of Arsinoe, where before Earl's optics, he saw a pair of jet black gunships with five rotor blades, the cockpit like the rest of the helo itself was sleek, angular and sharp with two seats for a pilot and co-pilot. The two Helos were protected by sandbags built up around them in H-Barriers, these were large cube like sandbags that allowed greater protection than ordinary sand bags.

The nose of gunship had a tri-barrel turret while the weapons of the gunship were mounted on hardpoints that could fold inside the airframe to ensure the stealthy gunship remain unseen. Earl's HUD was able to recognize the gunship model as AH-80 Blackfoot gunship with technical specifications like speed, wingspans, weights, length, height, armament, engine power and weapon systems he could use. "Consider this an early Christmas Present." Anubis stated to Earl.

Earl nodded his appreciation to Anubis and felt himself getting a really anxious grin on his face as he saw his "present" unveiled to him. He held out his fist though ready for a fist pump before he even entered. "Alrighty then we got some high tech stuff. Let's hope the things of this realm have about the same amount of limbs and proportions. All that anatomy mumbo jumbo so i can get into this thing." Earl said in an eager tone.

"Then get going, let's get you in the air and fly a little patrol around Arsinoe just to be safe." Said Anubis as he patted Earl to let him come over to the gunship in front of him. The pilot seat for him was in the front of the gunship while another robot wolf climbed in the gunner seat behind him.

The helo's ground crew were robot wolves that Earl would recognize being assembled onboard the Tartarus as they were going over the gunship's weapon systems and its performance. The ground crew outfitted the pylons with two AA missiles and two ATGMs for sniping Armored threats from a distance. Once they stood clear and gave Earl a thumb up, allowing him to take off when ready.

Earl gave the rest of them the thumbs up as well. By now he was wearing a more appropriate look over his body. A more futuristic looking flight suit made from the liquid nanites in his body to make up a solidified armor that was tan in coloration with 3 pockets on both sides of his chest, and a dull tan armored plating over his legs much like a pair of cargo pants.

The rotor of the Blackfoot started to rotate slowly moving around in a constant circle before spinning up faster gradually before finally the rotors were cutting through the air in a rapid spin making the rotors blur. At full spin the helo lifted off of the ground going airborne higher and higher until it reached an altitude high above the ground Earl felt comfortable with. "A bit high tech for an old guy like me, but I like it. Don't see much suspicious things yet. But this high everyone looks like ants on the sand. At least I fit in it." Earl quipped.

"Affirmative, I'm updating a waypoint for you, head North to NavPoint Alpha." Anubis stated over the coms as he remotely uploaded navigation data to Earl, showing him a navigation waypoint to the North. "Remember, do not fire unless fired upon." The deity reminded Earl cautiously as the Helo headed out to the Navpoint, as Earl flew across the arid landscape he saw the Tartarus still docked to the port at Port Said in the far left of his cockpit view while then to his front he saw helicopters and VTOLs of the GDI flew patrols and supply missions back and forth to several FOBs on the frontline. He however saw that there was something wading ashore, a massive mecha unit with purple violet armor.

Earl looked over at the massive mecha unit, and zoomed in. He couldn't really make out the humans, but he saw what was coming ashore by the GDI FOB with a massive mecha maintenance pad. He almost gasped seeing the purple mecha was more than just a purple colored tank. In fact it was nothing like what he was expecting. "Uh. Guys. Uh. There's a uh. Big purple dinosaur thing being unloaded off of the ship right now. And I think she maybe a girl?" Earl quipped taking a look as he continued on.

What he didn't know though was this was the MFS-7 unit Hera. As she stood up getting on her feet away from the beach and shook water droplets off of her, she immediately stretched her body out. Her violet colored arms stretching upwards into the air with fists balled up before her fingers each stretch out flexing.

On closer inspection though she was a lot more advanced looking than the previous MFS-4 line of MONARCH and GDI. Her eyes for one were a lot sharper looking than the normally rounded eyes of previous units. Each one a glowing cyan color with an angular near parallelogram shape. Brows much sharper with a more prominent frown. The features of her head were lot more angled with an emphasis on straight edges opted in rather than the curves.

Much of her body kept this removal of curves for the straightened edge of angles. The panels of her neck look like straight Vs while on the sides of the base of her neck the outer hoses present on old units were gone. The old units leading to back thrusters. Now it seems the thrusters were concealed inside of the armor platings in her back covered by angular looking panels.

Her chest much like the rest of her body was purple though one of her much more angled chest panels had an image of a peacock much like the symbol of the Greek Hera.

Much of the abdomen was the same though. Surprisingly with the actual curves of her body the suit only seems to enhance a feminine form. Especially for a reptilian organism. Conclave curves around her sides curved inwards presenting a rather well formed abdomen structure.

Her legs though had a much sharper look to them unlike the precious units which had round thighs and lower legs. Her thighs were sharper looking with her shins and calf structure below the thighs having angled violet armored plates.

Unlike Girain or Gojirin however, she bore a different logo on her shoulders. Rather than the GDI logo she had a blue colored varsity "S" shape that was made up lies rather than curves and a red hollowed out octagonal "O" shape holding the "S" within a black colored "O" identical to the outside one. The logo meaning "Orion's Sword."

After stretching out she looked through her HUD checking a topographic map of the region and the surrounding water to see she arrived first to the main location where the GPS transponders of the stolen vehicles were. "Grand Theft Auto ain't working this time. Let's see what's in store for this fabulous goddess of a mecha unit." She boasted once the location has been locked in around the ancient town of Arsinoe.

As she boasted however, her voice was recorded by the gunship and sent back to Anubis causing him to grunt a bit as he cough out hearing her voice and the amount of sass she had. "Yeah, you're looking at MFS-7 Hera, a cyborg giant monster of this dimension. In general she's a sassy virgin and waiting to be impregnated." Said Anubis with a sigh exiting his mouth denoting his opinion on Hera herself. "I'm updating your Waypoint now, head to NavPoint Bravo to the Southeast." Anubis then updated the navigation waypoint of Earl.

As the Blackfoot gunship of Earl headed out to the Southeast however, Hera would notice that the Gunship's IFF was not responding and identified it as friendly despite being Orion model. Not only that but she was picking up strange communication signals from that gunship towards an unknown seaside town that was not marked on the map display. Truly suspicious for her, compelled by this info, Hera would soon head off towards the direction of the town to conduct her own recon.

"Be advised Unit 591 Earl Lupis, radar detected unknown entities entering our patrol area." Earl's co-pilot notified him as the robot wolf monitored the radar screen of the gunship, Earl's HUD was forwarded with radar signal data showing a pair of UFOs flying from Israel into the Southeastern part of the Sinai Peninsula before heading west towards Arsinoe over the mountains.

Earl watched the radar seeing just how fast the bogeys on it were. Much faster than what he was expecting. "Alright I just spotted something Goddamn fishy on my radar. Some bogies coming from the north headed in for what looks like our direction. Really fast as well they just came from Israel. Whatever that is. Man all these places are all mixed up. Going west to Arsinoe. What are these guys pullin' on us?" Earl asked suspiciously.

"Advised course of action, interception. Engaging weapons systems." Said the robot wolf co-pilot of Earl as he proceeded to flip the electronic switch off, this sent an electronic command to the weapon system to put safeties off and opened up the hidden weapon pylons of the gunship as Earl flew to intercept them over the rocky terrains of Mt. Sinai. He saw that the intruders were a pair of Vipers gunships.

The two hostile helos were apparently hybrid gunships with Mi-28 style cockpit and nose, Mi-24 fuselage and airframe and Kamov V shaped tail and coaxial rotor design.

As Earl was flying over their head, his co-pilot switched on the targeting system aiming at the enemy helos from behind, the robot wolf carefully press the red button, firing a heat seeking IR missile off of the rail it was mounted on.

The missile streak across the sky at the enemy gunship and slammed into their upper fuselage where the engine was, blowing the first gunship out of the sky.

The other quickly entered combat mode as it banked to the right trying to get a lock on Earl for the gunner to fire off the 30mm autocannon mounted under its cockpit.

The enemy gunship would soon open fire the 30mm cannon at Earl's Blackfoot, forcing him to take evasive maneuvers while the bullets struck rocks and stones around the canyons.

"Oh man this is gettin' intense! Goin' for evasives. These guys ain't pullin' around!" Earl exclaimed, but still mainiting a rather chilled out demeanor. He banked to his right going for a quick evasive, though retaining his helo's stability so the co-pilot could still fire his gun with relative accuracy.

As this was happening, his co-pilot swivel the gun around using his eye to aim his weapon then fire on the enemy gunship, leading the enemy gunship as he fired the 30mm chaingun of the Blackfoot on the hides of the enemy hybrid gunship. He was able to penetrate its fuselage and punctured the gunship's sides but this enemy was rather tough to beat.

The Vipers gunship raised its altitude again firing off a pair of AA missiles at Earl, causing him to make a helix turn and dump flares to evade the incoming missiles, narrowly saving him in the process. Earl would see that the enemy gunship was banking again trying to get a bead on him, his Co-Pilot was quick on his feet opening fire again at the enemy gunship, piercing its hides continuously before the gunship began to smoke and crash down, exploding into a smouldering wreck in the process.

"Target neutralized, mission accomplished, reporting no damage to airframes. Ammo expenditure at 35%." Said the Co-Pilot as the robot went over the monitor of the helo's ammunition and set the nav point for Earl to return to Arsinoe to rearm and maintenance for the high tech helo.

"Good work Earl, I knew I can rely on you. RTB and let's get this thing rearmed, we got some guests coming." Said Anubis as he looked over to the mountainous passes nearby, feeling the thumping sounds of Hera approaching the town of Arsinoe. He didn't know where exactly Hera was coming from. But at least he knew that once she got close enough she'd be shrunk down to human size to avoid crushing the historical town.

XXXX

Hera was marching towards the nearby area of Arsinoe to take the initiative and conduct her own "Recon in force" and locate the vehicles. Bragging rights for her essentially. As she was marching through the canyons and ravines, she noticed there were faint opaque lines of dust on the ground running around the canyons and narrow passes. They appeared to have been made by salt, from the looks of it, white and grey powder that seem deceptively innocent but suspicious upon inspection of their placement. "Pfft, a little dust and salt? For what? Luck? Add salt to injury? Nah too literal." Hera snorted out giggling lightheartedly before marching forward, not quite aware of what was in store for her.

As she stepped forward, her feet stomped on the line of dust and moved on leaving a rather massive footprint on the ground. But as she lumbered forward, she felt a slight rise in nausea and it seems like every step she took further into the area, she grew smaller. Could it be her eyes were playing tricks on her? No it couldn't be. She squinted her eyes and twitched her optics a bit as she looked at the mountain ranges ahead of her, she could have sworn that moments ago it was but a little berm for her, now she was its relative height, and then it dawned on her. She WAS shrinking down to human size!

"Oh no what's going on here!? How is this happening to me? How am I suddenly in Honey, I shrunk the kids?!" Hera flabbergasted looking around back and forth trying to make sense of the situation that she was thrown into out of the blue. Before long, she was around 7 ½ feet tall. "How am I supposed to stomp into cities when I need to now?!" She shrieked out panicking around and flailing trying to make sense of the situation she was in.

"Looking for sense? You've found it." Called out the deep baritone voice of Anubis as he was seen stepping up to their peripheral vision with his scepter in hand, though he stood at around the same height as Hera, slightly shorter than her but he was clearly projecting an authoritative figure to the Kaiju there. Besides him were Belisarius and Arminius acting as bodyguards along with a squad of robot wolves and jackals.

Arminius knew that she was mechanical in some ways if her appearance alone wasn't enough, he kept his weapon at low ready as he zoomed his optics on his chest panel identifying her name. "MFS-7 Hera?" He read, noticing the peacock silhouette drawn on her. "Are you the wife of Zeus herself? Sent to test my fidelity?" He asked her awkwardly.

Hera snorted a bit to the two of them as they reacted to the likes of the cyborg Titan. She stepped over to Arminius and patted his head treating him like a dog before scratching the underside of his mouth. "Nope, I'm different. Much more reptilian mechanized war machine. Well that and a unique Titan to boot. Sorta. The humans for as squishy as they are still need my expertise every so often, and I obliged. Of course the last time didn't go too well for anyone, but I'm here to make sure everyone is thinking on all levels so we all end up winning. Because frankly losing sucks. But what happened to me? Why am I teeny tiny?" She asked flabbergasting before letting go of Arminius and kept her guard up around the trio.

"You stepped on the barrier, it's fortunate that it only shrunk you." Anubis remarked to her, causing Hera to blink and shook her head in absolute shock and confusion. "For real? I just got shrunk down to a human? This is embarrassing! What is going on here? What are you and why did you steal Orion Sword vehicles!?" She asked sound half delirious by the sudden twist in her predicament, noticing the odd mannerisms and methods of Anubis only made her more confused.

"Would you calm down for a second, please?" Belisarius suddenly sounded up, this caught Hera's attention as she glanced over to him and leaned her head in closer to inspect him, accidentally poking at his nose in the process. "What did you say?" She asked curiously, now feeling uneasy by Belisarius's voice being an uncanny resemblance to that of Mr. Grey. "Umm disrespect much, they turned Mr. Grey into a robofurry now? Who are you people? Why is he talking like Mr. Grey? Why don't you recognize me!?"

The barrage of questioning continued, making it difficult for Anubis to try and explain to her anything. And knowing that whatever she heard would be relayed to her commanders as they were talking. He stroked his chin thinking while Belisarius and Hera were trying to make sense of one another, Arminius approached the deity and whispered to his ear suggestively.

"May we lead her back to our encampment Strategos Anubis?" Arminius asked the deity who nodded his head quietly before gesturing Hera to follow him and the robot bodyguards if she felt the need to do so. "Follow us madam, Arsinoe isn't far and it's the closest place to have a high tech camp for your eyes." Said Anubis in a sarcastic tone.

Hera moved her hand back down to her hips to stop grabbing Belisarius pauldrons and nodded to the group. "May you escort me? Fine, if you scratch my back, I scratch yours is applied. Then yes." Hera said with her own dry sense of humor.

Belisarius was slower to join up with the main group as he watched Hera body language as she lingered around him longer than he would like her to. Not to mention her tail being a long reptilian and it was poking up his own tail and rear. Not to mention her optics appeared to look down at his chest and abdomen region alongside his crotch, which appeared to be a tight bulge. "Are you sure about this? She might lead them… Orion Sword and their GDI on us." Belisarius nervously asked, making a subtle objection.

"Would they shoot you? You didn't kill a single one of theirs." Anubis replied to Belisarius, making him nodded understandably, as he led them walking back along the dirt road towards Arsinoe. Thankfully Arsinoe was only a mere 500 meters away and they would soon arrive at the seaside Egyptian town. There, Hera saw a temple of Thoth with a massive Obelisk made from Onyx with golden pyramid top and inscription of Hieroglyphs written on its length.

The town had been abandoned long ago by Egyptian natives, now it was occupied by robot jackals and wolves who went about patrolling, maintenance of vehicles and weapons. Some of them looked at Hera with suspicion, though it was hard to tell due to their stiff robotic faces. But Hera can feel the atmosphere of being in an out of this world army.

Hera pointed the tips of her fingers of her right hand to her chest clearing out her throat. "Presenting your newest allied help from the GDI MFS-7 Hera. You may applaud now." she quipped before turning to Anubis and others. "I can't really say this is the most populated this town has seen in a long time. I can't tell if blank robots count towards population. Better than nothing though." Hera stated looking back at the population of bots.

Belisarius grunted a bit to her rather sassed up dry nature. "Was not expecting someone named Hera to possess.. Well that attitude. From what I recall the goddess was… Hm." Belisarius stopped to think. As he did so she waved her claws at him.

"You're going to have to let go of the past then. I'm very certain whoever she is or was. Well let's say we aren't exactly the same being. In multiple respects." Hera replied.

"As in… the Goddess of Women, Marital Fidelity and Slayer of Mistresses." Anubis sarcastically added to Hera as he walked her into the barracks area of the town, inside the walled compound Hera saw that the tents were set up to house about 10 robots per tent with each one having a pad to charge them up and program them.

To her morbid surprises though she saw that the robots present there were anthro canines and all of whom were having a cable attached to their tail hole to charge them up and allow them to operate. Another thing she noticed was the robot Lucario being present there with a robot arctic wolf inspecting the weapon racks.

Hera seeing the morbid looks of the anthropomorphic canines gasped out and looked away from the sight. "Oh gross… What do you have going on here? Is this a sex dungeon or something? Are you pumping them full of aphrodisiacs? Also is that a pokemon? Was your intent to get the X rating and a lawsuit?" Hera quickly rented listing off many of the objections she had on top of her head.

Anubis sighed out hearing her words on the first part. "Please I would appreciate it if you just slow down a bit." Said Anubis with an exhaustive huff as he led her into a large rectangular building with a ground floor cleared of furniture and the interior seems to be dedicated to cleaning and washing the robots there.

Two of the dusty robots who went on patrol were seen standing in the middle of the place having high powered water blasting over their body before being followed up by waxing agents applied on their bodies and polishing.

Behind them was Earl Lupis being given a wash in the same manner with his co-pilot. "Oh and Belisarius, Arminius, I think I should introduce you and Hera to Earl Lupis here, he's our pilot for Aviation support." Said Anubis as he led the tour group over to Earl.

For as much as she didn't want to introduce herself to a canine anthropomorphic being she felt herself pressured to do so. She cleared her throat just as she saw Earl leaving the washing room. She held out her hand to the elder robot wolf with a smirk on her face. "So you're Earl? Funny I wasn't expecting blue collared name from someone who is in this ancient mythology Sci-Fi army. Normally I'd think ancient antiquity names."

Earl brushing the liquids off of his canine ears perked them up. He backed his neck away though alarmed seeing Her. A different type of beast entirely to his eyes. He rose a brown and shook her hand in his own muscular robotic hand. "Well I guess it's a pleasure to meet you then uhhh. Funny. You just told me my own name, but yah didn't gather to introduce your own self lady. I think you're a lady at least." Earl replied.

However, as soon as he spoke, she could hear his voice sound almost identical to someone else she knew about. "Woah. Did you just assume my gender? Anyway joke aside, I'd like to know why the hell did you guys steal the vehicles from Orion Sword. Funny thing is you guys didn't kill anyone, like you were trying your best to minimize casualties." Hera said moving her hand away pointing at the vehicles present there, still bearing Orion Sword and GDI insignia.

"Whoa now, don't charge me with grand theft auto. I'm just helping the guys driving and flying them. Anubis organized the theft but no killing." Earl quipped looking to Anubis, Belisarius, and Arminius. "Oh and more new guys? Well alright." Earl said. "Uh-huh so basically non-lethal GTA, grab the vehicles and equip mechanized infantry and ACAV force? My superior still need some explanation though." Hera quipped.

Belisarius looked to Anubis curiously. "Yes this Earl seems rather plebeian compared to what I am used to. Then again, even a pleb can make the finest gladius."

"Well long story short, Earl Lupis here is from a different dimension, a universe where anthropomorphic animals live. I befriended him and recruited him after a certain incident. Earl, meet Belisarius and Arminius, Roman robot wolves. Your roommates and if you like, your companions." Said Anubis in a confident and supportive tone as he let Earl shook Arminius's hand first before following it up with Belisarius as the robots were being introduced to one another. However, Hera was shocked to see how close Anubis was to Earl, his hand was clearly around Earl's waists to cuddle with him and his palm sat on his abdomen while Arminius gave Earl a hug.

Hera blunk surprised seeing them practically in romantic range of each other. Though her mind by her metal expression was still clearly trying to comprehend what was just said. "So basically a furry's heaven… riiiight… I didn't know you were into older people. Then again… you're like over 4000 years old or something right?" Hera quipped.

Earl looked over to Hera as he had his arms around Anubis's body raising a brow. "What? Hey I aint that old. I mean old enough to be an uncle, but uhhh. I guess he just likes em like that."

"To put it short, we're hetairoi, companions in Greek, and in short male lovers." Anubis playfully teased Hera as he led her with him out of the cleaning room to the interior of the temple where she could rest herself until she had to return. Earl in turn was led by Arminius and Belisarius to their tent to get to know one another. "Would you like to stay here? If it makes you and your superior trust us." Anubis offered her courteously, hearing this made Hera nodded to his offer, seeing a chance to conduct her own reconnaissance and assessment, Hera nodded. "I can't ask for the Ritz or Hilton from you guys, but sure."

[hr]

As nightfall the sunset on the horizon to the Western beach of Arsinoe, the two statues of Khonsou set up by the Ancient Egyptians were like a picture perfect gate to see the sunset as it was going down the horizon. Now the night was full to the brim with sparkling stars and a full moon to light the way for weary travelers.

Anubis at the moment was inside the Temple of Thoth by the courtyard where he sat with Charlie and Leandros. The robot arctic wolf was next to him sipping a cup of green tea flavored with the Nile Lotus. Leandros in turn sat in a meditative stance mimicking Anubis in an awkward manner.

For outsiders like Hera who saw this, it would raise questions on whether this was something intentional or that the robot was without self awareness of its own powers and capabilities. So far she had sent 5 SitReps back to her field HQ in Suez, where Joe Marshall was delegating additional forces landing and building up for their Peacekeeping mandate in the Sinai.

His reactions to them had been a mixture of confusion, curiosity and a burning desire to see for himself what on Earth was going on. Like an obsession that overtook Grey with his fascination with Girain before his death.

Meanwhile, Arminius, Belisarius were with Earl Lupis inside their tents as Arminius was going over Earl's robot chassis inspecting his frame one section at a time as he noted down how well Earl was functioning after a day. "You seem to be in good shape then Earl Lupis. Quite well in fact, have you and lord Anubis been through interesting times with each other?" Arminius asked Earl.

Earl nodded to Arminius and sighed out. "Uh. Kinda personal. But yeah. We've had interesting.. And violent moments together." Earl said while relaxing his muscular body to Arminius at the moment. He noticed though Earl was rather plump. Especially around his belly. A mix of both synthetic fat and muscle giving him a rather bulky appearance. Not all muscles.

Belisarius at the moment was examining Earl as well and felt his hand around Earl's belly. Less errotic and more curious. "Strange. It appears the nanites in you have modified you for bulk. Rather than pure muscle like me. Strange I can also smell a hint of Alcohol coming from your-"

Belisarius paused himself though seeing Earl casually take out a chrome colored whisky flask form his thigh to have a swig. Earl looked back to the two awkwardly as he drank his swig before jingling the flask around to them. "Yeah I get it. Beer belly. Have some whiskey?" Earl asked.

Arminius seeing this awkwardly took the swig for a moment to drink alcohol for himself finding his body oddly thirst for alcohol after thousands of years as a soul in the Afterlife. He drank the alcohol finding the Whiskey strange in taste as he handed it back to Earl and licked his lips.

"Odd taste indeed, I have been more familiar with red wines of Roman grapes but this is a new experience to me. Come Earl Lupis, let us share our love for one another if we are to march to battles protecting one another." Arminius stated bluntly to Earl showing his Roman mannerism as he gently led Earl closer to him and Belisarius.

Earl as he was being led looked down to his whiskey flask and huffed out he put the lid back on the flask and lace dit back into his thigh compartment before shutting the compartment altogether. "Yeesh that is some powerful stuff. I feel like I know where this is about to go." Earl said rather playfully. Or as playful as he could say. To the other two it was just his average gravely voice speaking.

"Hmmm. Some romance between us might be liberating. We have our Titan lady with us after all." Belisarius said as he came towards Earl and begin to inspect Earl's body with his hand rubbing and reaching down to feel Earl's crotch region to assess the virility.

Earl looked over to Belisarius though confused. "Titans? There's more than one of em? I just saw Hera and she ain't much of Titan right now. About our size and full of sass." Earl said before making a playful arousing growl.

This would then be followed by Arminius gently coming around Earl's back and wrap his arms around his waist and stroke his abdomen and chest. From behind Earl's back he moved his left hand up to Earl's biceps and chest plate while his right hand went down to Earl's crotch and grabbed his groin region to fondle it. "Let's get into the gymnasium sometimes, those divine heroic builds of Hercules might suits you." Said Arminius as he licked Earl's neck, preparing Earl to have Belisarius making love to him at the same time.

XXXX

While they were feeling themselves safe in Arsinoe enjoying themselves, by the mountains next to Arsinoe something suspicious was going on. Some of the outlying perimeter patrols were doing their round, sweeping the areas for any signs of intrusion. The robots had their standard issued loads of bullpup Storm Rider Assault Rifles and one automatic gunner following closely.

The whooshing sounds of aircraft and the roar of jet engines as they flew around the sky above caught their attention. They ducked down and listened to the propeller engines that were creeping through the area and saw a fleet of enemy helicopters. There were no markings on the aircraft and it seem to be heading Westward at suspiciously low altitude and slow speed.

Then, they heard additional rumbling and felt vibration on the ground, at first it was miniscule and almost unnoticeable, but they soon felt the militaristic rhythm to the footsteps and rumbling on the ground. Chasing the sound, the patrols ran around the bend of the ravine and noticed something.

When the wolf twitched his eyes a bit and glanced upward, he saw silhouettes of humanoid figures sprinting across the ravines and some others crawling on the ground to reach vantage points around Arsinoe. Working quickly, the patrol wolves jumped behind some rocks and stones before taking aims at the enemy forces that were infiltrating the region.

The rifleman of the patrol sent back a distress encrypted signal to Leandros in Arsinoe before engaging his targets. A hail of semi auto bullets whisked out from the barrels of their weapons, tapping enemy fighters at the rear, leaving the ones on the front to scramble for their Vantage Point.

As they did, however, they appear to run into some forms of booby traps, tripwired landmines and others like laser controlled Semtex explosives detonated, alerting the garrison of an incoming attack. "We are under attack. Hostile forces detected at Sector 3, 4, 5 and 8. They are trying to encircle us." Leandros stated robotically, devoid of urgency and remain stiff and calm as he stood up from the floor.

Anubis and Charlie were alerted and were quick to race out to man the defenses with Anubis climbing the roof of the temple while Charlie ran out to the village's main street and climbed up the rooftop of a nearby building.

"They're all around us, pick your targets and lock down your zones!" Charlie shouted to the other robots in the building with him as they began to pick out targets and squeezed their triggers, taking down one Viper operatives at a time.

In the main base Belisarius got out. Rather dazed and confused. Hearing the sounds of distant explosion and now the thundering cracking of machine gun fire he had to be quick to get out of his overly comfort zone. "They are here now?... Damn… I shouldn't have had an intimate moment now. They got the jump on us! To combat stations now! Go!" Belisarius ordered to the Jackal Guard forces.

"Oh hell no! The fucking neighbor is messing up my beauty sleep now!" Hera growled as she went up to the northern edge of Arsinoe where she saw the robot wolves inside of some of the houses, watchtowers and OPs on the high grounds were returning fire on enemy vehicles and infantry heading towards them. One of the first vehicles she saw was apparently an armored vehicle, with a bulbous rear and a pair of flamethrowers on the sides of a wedge shaped cockpit.

"I hope you have fire insurance." Hera snarked with her dorsal plates pulsing with atomic energy and fired a blue spiral atomic breath at the tank, piercing through its cockpit and exited the back and the vehicle exploded. The violent rupture and orange fireball warped the surrounding vehicles, the heat of the flame and the splattering inflammable liquid caught on the enemy fighters and incinerate them. "Guess not, oh well, that's for ruining my beauty sleep in furry convention!" Hera roared out as her wrist panels opened up, revealing her deadly built-in railguns and opened fire on incoming enemy FAVs being funneled in by narrow passes and roads.

Back in the rear, Belisarius was in a defensive position along with several other robotic soldiers using an assault rifle to suppress the enemy Vipers. He saw Hera bravely destroying and verbally disparaging the enemies, which confused and alarmed him at the same time about her tenacity.

Before he could think the whole of Arsinoe saw a bright blue flash accompanied by a loud thundering bang that arrived seconds afterwards. Light moving faster than sound. He ducked his head and shuddered a it having no idea what the cause was. Only once he looked up he saw a mushroom cloud rising over the hills from where the Vipers had come from. "What on Terra was that?..." Belisarius said breathless. "I'll have to ask her myself later." He shook his head, reorienting himself for the battle and continue firing.

"They're suicidal! I've already dropped 4 of them approaching our perimeters with explosives!" Arminius stated as he poured down the lead at the incoming onslaught of Viper operatives.

The two Romans saw that the enemies were rather well motivated but suicidally foolish as they raced down the dirt road and mountain slopes opening fire on the robots, kicking off dirt and chewing off concrete blocks only to have the bullets ricochet or bounce off the robots themselves.

Other Vipers however began to show their true intents when they attack Arsinoe, the Vipers on rocky ridges fired their RPG-29s launchers at the parked Stryker ICVs, blowing up the vehicles on the top. Others began to join in firing mortars from beyond line of sight to shell the town mercilessly. "Hostile mortar fire position triangulated at grid Hotel-2 India-4. Unit Charlie Frost and Unit 591 Ear Lupis are to dispatch and suppress enemy mortar with an attached squad." Leandros stated blankly sending the orders to Charlie and Earl Lupis's HUD along with the Data of the mortar positions.

After their HUDs were updated with the mortar locations Earl began to move out of the village. "Oh boy here i go killing again." Earl said as he went to find where his Blackfoot had been landed. At a landing pad constructed at the center of the town. "Where's my co-pilot. We gotta light these sligers up. Maybe we can spot the monster from over here. I got get a pic for Logan." Earl said running to the helo.

Once Earl got on the helo and took off to fly around for mortar hunting, he found the area to be a smoking mini inferno, his thermal imaging system spotted the enemies on the ground, both dead and still active, it accounted to about a company size force with attached tanks to assist their assault. All that was left was the mortar detachment still hammering the position of his fellow robot lycans.

"Enemy mortars are nearby Unit Charlie Frost, advise caution and ambush to catch enemy mortars off guard." One of the robots accompanying Charlie stated as they came close to the enemy mortar positions, they heard the thumping sounds of mortar fire became louder and louder.

"I know no need to remind me. But thanks anyway." Said Charlie in a nervous tone with a glance back at the robot following him. They were climbing over a rocky slope when they saw the enemy mortars firing, two of the robots tossed out frag grenades at the enemies blowing them up with a loud bang. "Go go go! Clear them out!" He shouted ordering them in a rare moment of assertion as the robots charged up in a wedge formation using their Tactical Assault maneuvers to clear out the mortar positions.

This left the mortar position empty and their enemies broke off running as fast as they could away from Arsinoe but the deed has been done. As they ran off from Arsinoe the already abandoned and decaying town was even more of a wreck with the houses there being humbled, the vehicle depots where they parked the Stryker ICVs was now damaged.

"Assessing damages: 34 Stryker Vehicles damaged or destroyed. Four houses destroyed, 5 more damaged. 2 Units damaged and require repairs and restoration process. 4 Units in critical conditions. Assessment end." Leandros stated robotically as he reported back to Anubis and Belisarius in Arsinoe and predictably Anubis was fuming with rage. "Well that's perfect! We're hampered in mobility now. Some of our bots will have to march on foot!" Anubis growled.

While he was fuming however, Hera came up to him and patted his back before sarcastically quipped and dished out her verbal abuse. "Lighten up dude, since you were this good with me and kicking the neighbor's asses, I'll put in a good word for you to have a discount." She then noogie Anubis and wrapped her left arm around Anubis's neck to pull him in against her chest.

As the damages to Arsinoe was being assessed and the dead and wounded accounted for, a static radio noise can be heard from the radio shack of the Temple as Leandros came over to it to check on the radio broadcast. The robot Lucario switched on the receiver and heard the voices coming over the radio broadcast. "This is Badger-6 we're taking heavy fire at FOB Alamo, hostile forces all around our perimeters! Need immediate back up now!"; "This is Dagger 1-1, we're having trouble fighting a rear guard action, hostiles coming in hard and fast over!"

Hearing the radio broadcast of the Chimera Leandros's LED optics flashed brighter as he came back to Anubis and Belisarius bearing grim news. "SitRep as followed: GDI and Orion forces in the Sinai are under heavy attack, reported hostile incursion escalated into a full scale invasion. Projected vector of attack, the Suez Canal and Great Bitter Lake." Hearing the report from Leandros caused Anubis to fume even harder as he gritted his teeth before looking over at Belisarius. "Assemble the troops, take whoever you want with you, Leandros will take command and delegate orders, I'll make sure Arsinoe is evacuated to protect the Suez."


	6. Chapter 6: Suez Crisis Redux

**(Author's note: the chapter you are reading now is a reworked from its original version. This entire story is undergoing a massive overhaul one chapter at a time. So you may have some contradicting information as you read the story, I will let you all know when will the overhaul is done.)**

* * *

Chapter 6: Suez Crisis Redux

Out in space, countless satellites orbit in a pattern programmed into them like a destiny that would continue on and on until their fuel tanks expended. One of these Satellites had a high powered magnification scope looking down on Earth with advanced encrypted data streaming technology to forward its finding back to Earth. As the satellite was orbiting over the Middle Eastern and MEDCOM area the scope of the satellite zoomed in and began its acquisition.

"What do we have here? SitRep ain't going to be pretty when this gets to the Oval Office." Said one of the operators of the Satellite within a massive War Room of the Pentagon. "Jesus fucking Christ, what the fuck are they doing now?" A 4-star general grumbled as he watched the satellite image recording the sight of vehicles and infantry formations massing at the border between Egypt and Israel.

"Did they just drop their marbles?" Another scowled in frustration, the Air Force General and his Army counterpart saw the formations of vehicles and infantry suddenly pushed through the border of the Sinai Peninsula and raced eastward.

"Get the Oval Office on the line now! We're going to DEFCON 3, I repeat, DEFCON 3." The staff heard the orders and immediately scrambled to get to proper battle stations and forward their reports to the White House. The images they were seeing tell the worst case scenario they thought of amongst countless other hypothetical ones just come true.

XXXX

Sinai Peninsula, Egypt

At that moment…

Belisarius's Note:

June 4th, 2034

Jupiter gives me strength, the enemies of Rome and Egypt have made their moves much sooner than anticipated, one hypothesis is that they have planned this from the start as a sort of contingent plan. For the time being I must remain focused on the mission at hand. A town called Nekhel sat on an important crossroad is being used by the Vipers as their supply depot, we are to engage and drive them out with Mars fury and hold it, as it sat on the Main Supply Route (MSR, I must remember these acronyms). I can see great concerns in Anubis's eyes however mechanical they may look, whenever he looks at the albino grey robot with blue highlights. He entrusted me and Arminius with this boy, this son of his. Who is the mother I'm not sure, but I'll protect him as if he were my own.

Charlie's Note:

June 4th, 2034

So I'm heading into the killing field again, great, just what I need. He promises me that I'll be safe with those two Roman guys. But I just can't shake that feeling of being killed suddenly. How will that play out? I don't know, but it's not something people are comfortable with. I just hope I'll make it out of this alive in one piece. Anyway, better keep this in mind, zig-zag, don't go straight lines or they'll pick you off. Duck and cover to minimize target profile, aim and shoot to conserve ammo, scavenge weapons if I have to. They got a trio of AAA batteries scattered around the town and there's a ton of supplies we can use namely fuel and ammo stockpiles. Uncle Earl can provide CAS but I need to take out the AA threats for him.

Two companies and one additional support platoon. That was their forces operational at the moment with Arsinoe being evacuated to return to the Suez and protect the Canal itself. First Company being the Assault element, mostly of motorized light infantry, not ideal for the job but this was all they have fielded at the moment and they must utilize their hardware and equipment with the best of tactics and improvisation.

Second Company being a mixed bag, two motorized infantry platoons, one mortar support detachment and FIST team. Their support platoon were hauling extra fuel and ammunition to support them in battle but they knew that it wasn't going to last forever.

The Stryker ICVs of 1st Company came to a stop on the highway 50 on the West of Nekhel and quickly fan out to either side of the highway before disembarking the troops mounted inside them. Squads of anthropomorphic robot wolves quickly hopped off their vehicles and fanned out converging on the ridgeline of sand dunes and berms before going prone to maintain low profile.

For every three normal assault squads, there would be either a weapon squad of robot wolves or jackals packing LMGs like M240Bs gunner, an ammo carrier and their squadmates to handle other duties.

For Charlie as he was disembarking the Stryker ICV, he was following Arminius and Belisarius as their squad ran up to the edge of the berm next to the highway. The sand barrier appeared to be hastily erected by their enemies, so they had to keep themselves lower than usual to avoid being sighted.

The Stryker vehicles back off the road, to avoid being hit by ATGMs and potential hostile tanks that were waiting for them. Some of the robots on the far right side of Belisarius were crawling up on the ridgeline of rocky formations near the highway to obtain the high ground and observation post.

As they did, 4 Stryker Mortar Carriers quickly parked behind the rock and berm and adjusted their M120 Mortar tubes. "All units commence the attack." Leandros's robotic voice ordered them, springing the assault force forward.

"Beginning assault!" Belisarius shouted as he got up and scaled the sand berm going up its sandy surface. It was very much a hastily made cover made by the Vipers, but it didn't seem to stop Belisarius from scaling up its slanted side.

As soon as he got to the top he unleashed a large volley of missiles down to at the enemies that were over the otherside of the birm. The missiles streaked out of the fronts of his shoulders leaving a thin smoke trail and a large plume of smoke on the upper portion of his torso.

The missiles streaked across the landscape reaching the enemy vehicles dug into the ground, some of the vehicles that Belisarius's Missiles found were apparently 6 wheeled APCs with an autocannon mounted on the top. The missiles struck their targets and detonated after piercing the vehicle's hides, each missiles were like a silver chrome fire cracker device that set the interior alight.

The APCs were burning wrecks with their ammo cooking off inside before exploding violently with their turret or hatch flung high into the air before falling on the ground. The crew bail out screaming for help as they rolled on the ground trying to put out the flame.

As the robots of Belisarius and Arminius squad pushed forward they began to receive returning hostile fire, lines of green tracer rounds flew at them from the rooftops or windows of the sandy yellow rectangular buildings of the town.

Before them was a massive open ground with no cover while the enemies were returning fire with either KORD HMGs, or even more extreme cases, Metis ATGMs. The missiles being rather slow moving compared to the infantry missed their targets while the HMG rounds bounced off of the robot's body, stunning some and caused others to fall to their backs but they soon recover and push again.

It was then that the Stryker ICVs began to assist their infantry counterparts opening fire on the enemy forces with their M2 HMGs 50 cal, the MGS variants began to lay down precision 105mm rounds on dug in enemy positions, blowing through the various buildings. The Vipers of course weren't interested in surrendering and were quick to return the favor with their Autocannons from their surviving APCs.

During the assault Belisarius saw incoming hails of tracer rounds flung right at his sturdy core. His body being too muscular to dodge and weave with a ninja like precision was stuck with rolling and quick bobs and weaves. Most of the bullets leaving imprinted dent marks in his body, but without piercing into his more fragile synthetic body.

Though his target was very clear. He was headed towards one of the APCs laying down fire. He let off a smoke grenade from his left thigh compartment concealing his movements from the attacking APC. The whitefog-like substance in the air also concealed the other robot warriors behind him, but he was in the clear.

Where he had gone to however was the hatch of the APC itself. Using his hands he grabbed the handle of the hatch crushing the metal in his hand like an empty tin can. He then pulled the hatch off of the APC completely before jumping inside. Before they could realize their vehicle had been infiltrated they felt a hot sharp object penetrates their bodies slicing into them impaling them.

As they fell to the vehicle floor, Belisarius climbed over to the auto cannon control and rotated the turret to face the other enemy APCs around him. His HUD instructed him to pull the trigger on the control stick in front of him, unleashing a hailstorm of high powered depleted uranium penetrator rounds. Enemy APCs targeted were set ablaze or simply knocked out with massive gaping penetrating holes in their hulls.

"That's what Rome's Emperor stands for! Forward men, aid your brethrens in battle!" Arminius ordered the robots under his command to charge forward, sprinting as fast as they could to cover ground quickly as he led the infantry charge like that of Roman Legionaries.

Charlie was following closely behind him as he made a dolphin dive before the brick wall and stood up slowly. He rested his weapon on the top of the wall and aimed at the enemies on the rooftop of nearby buildings. The young robot warrior managed to land a handful of potshots at Viper operatives garrisoning a building.

However he didn't see one was aiming at him and was about to open fire. Arminius however managed to snap to the shooter and squeezed out a burst of automatic fire, dropping the target instantly. The barrage of bullets was so powerful that it left the Viper operative's arm ripped off his body, and left dying on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

As the robots pushed into the outer edge of town, their enemies flounder and fell back to the northern edge. "I want some fucking artillery on those tin cans now! Get the 155s on the horn and stem their assault now!" The Colonel of the Vipers shouted to his underling, the lesser Viper who wore an integrated gas mask and arachnid like goggles on his face dial the nearby artillery battery to open fire wildly on the highway turns in the center of town.

The artillery thundered across the landscape, shells howled in the air as they screeched across the sky before landing with a loud boom. They thumped the ground again and again, leveling buildings and cratering roads indiscriminately as they began to retreat to the Northern edge of town to hold their ground.

The robots of the Jackal Guards have done their job executing the first phase of the assault with no casualties but minor damages to their own frames and some scratched paint jobs. But they have yet to secure the town and most importantly, they have yet to destroy the enemy air defense batteries.

Belisarius after getting out of the APC joined back with Arminius. It didn't take much to know that artillery was raining down from the sky on the robots. He could hear the crackling thunder of explosions relatively close to their point. He even felt the explosions quake through the ground. He could even feel an occasional piece of debris either blasted off from buildings or from the ground itself and on his frame.

"Can we get a location of the artillery units peliting us right now? They don't even care where they are shooting. Just as long as it is in our general direction." Belisarius said.

"I can't see them anywhere, Belisarius. They're beyond visual range for any of us." Arminius replied to Belisarius peeking his head over the low wall occasionally to get a good observation of the town in front of him. To his chagrin there was no sight of enemy Howitzers and the fact that the shells were of 155mm didn't help them one bit.

"Be advised, SIGINT has shown that enemy forward observers are using the nearby building to your 1 o'clock as their platform. Find and eliminate this target." Leandros instructed them over the coms causing Charlie to feel increasingly concerned that Leandros's uncaring and detached mannerism and robotic mentality may not be conducive to his predicament. "Don't we have some form of support for this? I can't do much if I'm blown to pieces you know." Charlie remarked crassly to Leandros only to hear the robot Lucario return the favor. "Perhaps I can recommend Mortar coordinates from your line of sight."

"Fine you'll get your target coordinate. Fire Mission, Barrage HE 120mm, coordinate India-4 Juliet-5." Charlie transmitted the coordinates wirelessly to Leandros, the robot Lucario sitting inside the Command Humvee of the Robot forces received the coordinates and saw the numbers being displayed on his HUD, he then locate the target using map grids and GPS coordinates and transmitted it back to the Mortar detachment.

Soon enough, the four Stryker MCs fired off their 120mm mortars in a "Mercy" fire mission. Or more accurately, Multiple Rounds Simultaneous Impact fire mission aided by their titular Artillery Computers. The rounds flew through the air before curving their trajectories down to the town, smashing the enemies dug into the nearby buildings and leveled some of the other structures without hesitation.

Belisarius rose his head back up and vaulted out from his cover. He took the radio conversation between Charlie and Leandros as his signal to get moving again. "Alright we are cleared to move. Exemplary accuracy from our Strykers. Move out. Our mission is to still find the air defence systems." Belisarius ordered. The dust from the mortars was still up in the air. The smell of the burning town around them entered their senses, and fogged up their vision. "Don't let the air deter you. It's the least of everyone's concerns. Keep you minds focused." He finished.

"Look at this, the might of modern firepower reducing bravery to foolish displays." Said Arminius as he tactically moved through the rubble of the urban setting. His HUD had dust and soot settling in on his optics, forcing him to wipe them out periodically before moving to the next building with Belisarius.

"I think their Howitzers are reloading, and must have spent their available ammunition too soon." He mused briefly as he moved to take cover behind a doorway. He glanced back to the robots squadmates accompanying him and Charlie before gesturing for one of them to take point after him. "CLU-01188, taking point now. Cover my back." Said the robot lupine as he moved out aiming his Storm Rider rifle at low ready as he moved about carefully scanning for threat.

Soon enough, threat began to pop themselves up to greet him, a pair of Viper operatives wielding RPG-30 launcher and another holding a LMG similar to the MG4 model of Germany open fire on CLU-01188, forcing the grey robot lupine to quickly make a dolphin dive followed by a combat roll on the ground to the wall directly underneath them.

"CLU-01188 diagnostic, zero combat damage. Proceed to returning the favor." The robot quickly climbed the wall using his magnetic paw pads and traverse the vertical height and opened fire on the enemies in the windows. The first one was dropped instantly, the other quickly ran back into the building's interior to find his backup, the robot wolf then tossed a grenade into the window, blowing up the building's interior instantly.

"Requesting backup to assist the assault fellow combat units. Hostile Forward Observers presumed to have dug into the building." CLU-01188 stated over the communication network to Belisarius and his squad. "Affirmative, assisting you now CLU-01188." The silver chrome robot wolf designated CLU-01192 replied to him as they began to move up.

After the two robots had given the request for backup, and located where the enemies had all flocked to it didn't take long for Belisarius to meet up with them. Going through the town alleyways and streets he met back up with the rather serial named robot wolves. Once he got to the building he entered through the doorway and scanned the inside with a suspicious gaze. "Good work you two. Let's clear this building out. Allow our enemies to face a death they'll care little for." Belisarius coldy remarked.

"Affirmative sir, we'll do." The robots replied to him as they then conducted an immediate sweep of the building, they followed a two man teams one to clear out rooms and the other to hold down the corners and turns to minimize enemy chances of flanking them. "Belisarius sir, I think I hear something in there." Charlie notified the tanky wolf as he gestured him to the shut door before him.

He stacked up on one side of the door while Belisarius stacked up on the other. "3, 2, 1 breaching breaching!" He kicked down the door, shattering it into pieces before lobbing in his collection of frozen pellets. The pellets detonated freezing his enemies into petrified cryo mannequins for Belisarius to destroy.

Belisarius as he entered the room didn't hesitate to shatter each of the ice blocks to pieces using his palm mounted laser to cause the ice statues to each explode into small bits. "We're cleared. Infiltration is going smoothly so far, but not without the tense feelings we are getting here." Belisarius said shifty eyed scanning for anything else.

"Objective Turquoise is secured, enemy Howitzers have gone silent and SIGINT show the defenders are retreating. All forces regroup in the town and prepare for briefing." Leandros stated to them as he began to drive into the town with the other elements of their forces.

"Confirmed. Moving back to the center of town." Belisarius said. He got out of the room just cleared of adversaries and made his way out of the building going through several hallways and then back outside.

With the town secured and the enemies pushed out for the time being, it was time to dig in and control it, the robots of the Jackal Guards were going about clearing through the buildings systematically rooting out stragglers, they were eventually in control of the town but they were of course still very weary of hostile forces trying to play tricks with them. Loud bangs and booms were heard as the enemy Pantsir AAA batteries around the town were destroyed using rocket launchers.

At the center of the town Belisarius Stood at attention with his chest puffed out and his arms both crossed behind his back as he awaited further instruction. He of course stood by Ariminus again as they had some down time while the robot soldiers did their work rooting out stragglers.

Once the Humvee came to a stop in front of them, Belisarius saw Leandros stepping off with a pack of wolves following him as a command squad element to relay orders. "As planned the enemies will no doubt return to capture the town to secure the MSR. We are to hold them back and prevent their assault from continuing into the Suez."

Belisarius nodded to the order given and looked back to the other wolves with him. "This can be arranged. We are then to set up a machine gun nest along the choke points of this town. Before they can even hope to reach the highway. That our main objective in my eyes is that passageway. The modern concrete highway offers a much higher rate of transport. It's sturdy compared to dirt roads. The ones I could remember in the countryside." Belisarius told.

Leandros's palm then lit up a holographic projection of the town's topographical map as he then zoned out the town into two distinct areas. The northern edge and the Eastern approach. He then tapped on the symbol indicating Belisarius and his Company and moved his index finger over to the Eastern side of the town of Nekhel. "Unit Belisarius, take your troops and control the Eastern approach set up land mines, machine gun nests and ATGM posts. Be ready for enemy forces coming at you." Leandros stated.

"I can ensure this task is done properly. Let's move now." Belisarius said selecting a few robots of his choice along with the supplies needed he fetched out from the Jackals convoy. "Let's move now while we still have a chance. Time is of the essence." Belisarius ordered.

The robots would then follow Belisarius and Arminius to a supply truck where they began to pick up their supplies of ammo and batteries for equipment. Each one was handed a canvas bag of 6.8mm AP Depleted Uranium ammo to fill up expend slots in their magazines. Charlie was filling up his magazines while sitting next to Arminius, he was on the communication network to call Earl Lupis. "Earl, the AAs are all gone you can fly in to provide recon and CAS for us now. We also caught a large cache of supplies to help you out just in case." Said Charlie.

Earl currently was leaning back with his legs kicked up in one of the convoy's vehicles when he heard the issue made by Charlie. "Huh? That fast? A lot better than last time." Earl commented as he got up.

A while later though the town heard the sound of Earl's now personal Blackfoot cutting through the air with a familiar helo sound buzzing above filling the desert town below with the chopper's buzzing sound. "Alright tell me what you got so I can land this bird and refit. Not seeing a sign of any missiles. Nice job." Earl said confidently.

As Earl was conducting his air patrol with a second Blackfoot as his wingman, he began to see the enemies diverting troops away from the main focus in the North along the coast and moved down South to them.

To the East additional forces were massing for a second attack and much to Earl's chagrin he saw that the enemies were bringing in Howitzers and many more tanks and APCs than he would like Charlie to encounter.

The tanks were of strange design, looking like slopey wedge blocks with four hover engines on separate wheels and an automated ATGM turret on top. It can even cloak itself to Earl's chagrin. His TADS camera also showed him enemy flamethrower tanks, the same models seen during the raid in Arsinoe.

"Okay guys you got some issues. Looks like uhhhh… Viper. You guys keep callin' em that, got some new toys they are gonna try out on us. Some type of wedge floating tank thing, and these really big ass fuel tanks headed from the north going down south. No wait sorry new things are coming from the east specifically. You just got more reinforcements going down to the south." Earl stated.

Belisarius as he dug in with the other defenses heard the word and rose his head in discomfort. "Must be desperate seeing our defense. If we break them here, we'll break them anywhere, let's hope our Titan allies return soon with her promised reinforcements." Belisarius stated.

Charlie himself was helping the other robots digging foxholes and various defensive earthworks while Arminius and second squad were guiding their Stryker vehicles into defensive positions with a wide arc of fire to cover the town's approach. Looking at their number though Charlie could tell that it was going to take much more than passive waiting to keep the enemies off.

He saw that the apartment block nearby was full of weapon caches, beside ammo, vehicle spare parts and fuels there were also large rectangular Anti tank mine with M19 AT labeled on their tops. An idea came to his mind, a risky one but worth a shot. He ran back to Belisarius and pointed him to the weapon caches. "Belisarius! There are land mines there I think we can use these to slow them down, I have an idea, a risky one but we might have a shot with it." Said Charlie.

Belisarius glanced over at Charlie then and nodded to him curious. "Inform me then. If anyone had any ideas on how to boost our defence come forwards now. I will judge anything, and any possible strategy we might use to our advantage." Belisarius stated.

Charlie then cleared his throat out as Arminius listened in on Charlie's idea trying to see if the idea he had in mind would work. "Alright I have an idea we take a squad then arm up with AT weapons and land mines. Bus them out on the highway and set up a minefield to catch their tanks off guard then fire our rockets on them to destroy the rest before retreating back to the town."

As he explained, Arminius began to check the map layout of the town and the expected enemy forces pushing into their position from the East and nodded his head. "Affirmative on that. The boy seems to be crafty Belisarius perhaps you should take him and a squad with you. I'll stay behind to help organize the defenses but you need to get back quickly once ammunition has been expended." Said Arminius.

Seeing the rather risky gambit was within a believable enough position to be a success for the Jackal guard nodded his approval. He still had a stern frown on his face though. "We are taking risky gambits just to ensure our success against these barbaric foes. Even the barbarians of old would scold these things… We'll go now then. Move." Belisarius said in a cold voice. He got out of his position following Charlie to the nearest available cache of supplies to carry out.

Charlie and Belisarius were then slowly hauling the weapons over to the nearby Stryker ICV and stash them into the vehicle. The robots were then seen picking up the RPG-29 launchers and armed themselves with additional external weapons.

The weapons they were carrying around were anti tank mines and a single ATGM launcher captured from the enemy, a PTUR Shershen launcher system. Charlie and Belisarius would then mount up on a Humvee while the robots mount up on their Stryker ICV and began to head out, they head out to the East along the highway knowing that the enemies will attempt to use it as their main axis of attack. Along the way, Charlie and Belisarius began to come across the various mass graves of the town folks being herded into crowds and executed on the spot by the Vipers.

As much as Belisarius wanted to tell Chalier not to be disturbed by the sights of the assmaing dead and murdered innocent part of him felt sickened and revolted. Looking at the unnecessary death. "Disgusting… Before all of this I barely believe in anything whimsically evil. Devils were so distant in the Roman empire. I was so grounded in reality. Hmm. Naive. Eventually though whatever is happening will end viciously. For our enemies. I don't condone vengeance though. I only condone justice. Charlie I can feel you want to end these things with rage. Remer we are to end them with calculated assaults. Remember your plan." Belisarius reminded.

"I will…" Charlie sighed out feeling increasingly uneasy as they came to the nearby road marking 500 meters outside of town. That was where Charlie began to pull the Humvee over to the side of the road and the Stryker pulled up on the sand dunes using the sands to obscure itself.

The vehicle dropped down the ramp and began to allow their troops to disembark and ran out to begin their work. Some of them scatter around and go prone. Two others set up their Shershen ATGM and went into hiding using a remote control laptop terminal. Charlie and Belisarius then took turns digging up the sand and road to plant their landmines.

Around 50 landmines were deployed once they were done, once the trap was set Charlie handed Belisarius an RPG-29 launcher. "Here take this, it should help with knocking them dead before your own shoulder missiles. By the way is Anubis getting in bed with you?" Charlie suddenly blurted out awkwardly to Belisarius in the most awkward manner possible.

Belisarius to this question grunted as he tried to focus the ATGM forwards in front of himself. General discomfort shot across his face, but not a blush. He only cleared his throat out and shushed Charlie. "Not important right now young one. Our relationship remains private. For now at least…" Belisarius stated.

Charlie nodded to Belisarius as he then lied down behind a sand berm and waited for his enemies to show along with Belisarius. The two were now prone and cautiously the road that they were guarding. For an intense 5 minutes of waiting nothing was seen, but soon enough, something was coming.

A vehicle was rolling by, the rumbling on the road and the sounds of its tires to Belisarius's audio sensors denote that it was a wheeled vehicle. Soon the two saw a scout car, a buggy that looked like it came out from a movie or a rally. He saw that the vehicle was manned by a crew of 4, a driver, gunner, commander and navigator.

As it was running across the road passing by the milestone, the robots jumped on it, CLU-01188 and his partner CLU-01192 jumped down from their elevated positions and used their feet to stomp the vehicle into a twisted wreck.

They gunned down the crew and left the bodies bleeding on the ground before returning to their positions. Then the main event came, on the road came the treads of flame throwing tanks, about 3 of them were leading the way. Followed behind them were a pair of stealth tanks and a convoy of 3 additional APCs.

The first vehicle crossed onto a mine, causing the violent detonation to destroy the vehicle in a loud blast, then the second vehicle was affected by the blast of the first and exploded, causing the third to follow suite. The Stealth tanks fanned out using their stealth cloaks to avoid being hit.

Their hover engines helped them avoid the impact mines, but this didn't protect them from magnet mines. The two tanks exploded causing the APCs to quickly fanned out and open fire wildly at the general directions in front of them.

The sight of the explosives and the blundering failure of the oversized bulbous tanks nearly made him snort with a laugh. He only muttered, "failure of engineering." to himself remarking the size of the gas tanks. It was hard not to see some enjoyment from the Vipers suddenly reacting ina rabid wild manner.

What was keeping him from laughing was the general distaste he had with how grim his foes were. Instead he opted for ending the battle as quickly as possible by shooting his RPG-29s grenade at the APCs seeing much of the heavier forces were still having trouble getting through the mines. "Open fire! Use their confusion to our advantage!" Belisarius ordered in a firm voice. His rocket propelled grenade however hissed through the air impacting the APC target of his choosing.

The robots quickly stood up from the berms and dunes and fired off their RPGs at the enemy APCs and destroy the three of them with pinpoint accuracy. However this wasn't the end of the enemy convoy as more of them began to arrive to join the carnage with miniguns and auto cannons firing at them.

"We ain't going to hold for long let's get out of here! Uncle Earl we need CAS now, popping red smoke to mark target location!" Charlie would then grab a red phosphorus smoke grenade from his left thigh compartment and tossed it out on the ground as the smoke built up. The robots of Belisarius were on the ridgeline opening fire down on the incoming foes keeping them suppressed for as long as they could while their squad leader and Charlie ran back to their vehicles and began to retreat one at a time.

"Okay I'm comin' in now kiddo! Hold onto your butts you'll see me swoopin' in right about now!" Earl exclaimed on the radio. To his credit he didn't take long to come. They feel the winds of his Blackfoot pelting them each with hard winds accompanied with the heat of his helo's propeller.

The helicopter made a vertical landing while Belisarius launched a smoke grenade to cover their hasty retreat. Earl's gunship along with his wingman were swooping over the reinforcements pelting them with rockets and chainguns tearing apart the enemy vehicles and logistic trucks to help stall down the enemies.

"Alright let's go! I don't think these things are going to be waiting that long!." Earl exclaimed. He then flew around to fire off the limited payload of ATGMs with his wingman to destroy the enemy vehicles and return to the town for resupply.

The Stryker ICV and the Humvee would then depart from the battlefield and headed back to the town to avoid their destruction. The Stryker ICV itself now followed the Humvee before eventually arriving at the town's Eastern edge and disembarked the troops inside to man their positions. Charlie and Belisarius would then head out to the nearby rectangular building that was still under construction where they set up on the second floor's windows.

The under construction building of course had limited cover for everyone in it. Some of the walls still needed to be put up leaving wooden framing and the skeleton of the udling exposed. Some hanging tapes that were blue with Egyptian writing of company logos twirled around in the wind. It was nearly like a thin fabric offering nothing in terms of protection.

Regardless, oh this Belisarius mounted himself behind any gun ready to fire at the convoy's remnants. He sighed out looking at Charlie nodding. "They are weak and confused now. We just need to hold up, stay strong. We have a Titan and a god on our side. Bellona give us your strength." Belisarius remarked.

As they sat and waited in an intense manner hoping for the enemies to come at them with a demoralized and perhaps cut down formation. However such notion was not even remotely real knowing the enemies were fanatical and didn't even bother with the thought of surrendering in anyway at all.

"Be advised, SIGINT shows enemy forces are five minutes out, prepare your positions and be ready to repel hostile assaults." Leandros informed them over the coms while sitting inside the command vehicle monitoring the laptop screen showing him a real time map of BLUFOR like technology with the gold and black symbols being the Jackal Guards and the Red symbols were REDFOR, blue symbols of the GDI-Orion Sword.

"Situational Update, mortal forces known as GDI have reported counter attack against their enemies and repelled the coastal assault. They're dispatching force recon elements on our positions." Said Leandros as he tapped on the symbols of the Chimera forces, seeing them to be a motorized force of MRAPs with some Stryker vehicles accompanying them heading down the town. But these weren't just the regular Joes, they were Rangers of the GDI.

Further away to the Western edge of town by the open ground, Earl's Blackfoot gunship and that of his wingman were being rearmed with a full load of rockets and ATGMs to engage their enemies. Their chainguns were being loaded up with strips of Depleted Uranium rounds to provide maximum damages on the vehicles that were coming at them.

Once the ammo was loaded up, he was able to take off once again with his wingman as they head out to take up positions to defend the town. Soon enough, Belisarius and Charlie saw enemy vehicles coming into their peripheral vision with the stealth tanks being the first to move forward. ATGMs couldn't lock on to the target due to its cloaking ability hiding it from IR search engines. Its silhouette however remains somewhat visible albeit much more transparent.

With at least the silhouettes to go by it was good enough for Belisarius to make a loud whistle along with firing his own ATGM. Though without the lock on to guide the missile he was left with tracking the vehicle's movement pre editing where they would go. As the rocket whoosed out of the building it caused the flowing tarps covering the building to flail around disrupted before it throttled forwards towards the desert.

After a brief moment the vehicle he aimed for drove into the rocket as he had predicted exploding in a violent red explosion. Instantly the destroyed vehicle left its cloaked form while smoke coming off of it brushed against the frame of other nearby vehicles.

The cloaked tanks began to suffer problems with hiding from Belisarius's rockets as they began to open fire wildly into the town, forcing the Jackal Guards to return the favor opening fire on their enemies. The defenders knew their advantage and were fighting hard to keep off the enemy assault, one vehicle forward, one rocket on its top. Then two more bogged down before being destroyed by the MGS Strykers.

Rinse and repeat long enough and the enemies were slowing down their advance feeling the momentum of their assault was dying out and they were struggling to even keep up with the Jackal Guards stubborn defenses. "Those fucking tin cans aren't giving up! I need artillery to support my assault now! Our infantry can't push forward if they're gunned down." One of Viper officers cried out on the radio to his superiors before seeing his radioman got popped by Arminius' well placed bullet.

"Fuck! Can't wait around to be caught, retreat now! Fall back and regroup!" The officer shouted out to his troops as they began to fall back for the first time seeing their vehicles being wasted and their forces simply too fragile to go up against the Jackal Guards easily.

"They're falling back! I need mortar support now. Mercy Mission, barrage HE grid Juliet 6 Kilo 7, fire for effect." Charlie shouted on the communication network of the Jackal Guards, sending the command to the Mortar Carriers as the Stryker vehicles open fire their mortar shells in simultaneous manners.

The mortar shells flew into the air arcing down on the retreating foes and detonated on impact with the ground. The mortar rounds eviscerated, sometimes they even vaporized the retreating enemies. "All elements cease fire and check your weapons, count your numbers and report losses. The cavalry has arrived, late." Leandros stated bluntly with a slight hint of mocking as he saw the Rangers and GDI Stryker Infantry Brigade Combat Team arriving at the town of Nekhel and began to fan out only to see the robots have already done the fighting and holding the town for them.

One of the Ranger's MRAP, entered the town before stopping nearby. The ramp in the back of the vehicle popped open and lowered to the ground, letting the Ranger leader Nicolas Williams out. He oddly had a dust color MICH on his head while still wearing a Crye Precision Camouflage pattern uniform and a plate carrier rig. Additionally, his combat uniform was topped off by a series of shoulder, knee and elbow pads for protection alongside heavy duty combat boots alongside his camoed cargo pants.

"Oh shit we are late to this aren't we? Hey uh no hard feelings right? We just got the all clear from the GDI we could come out here. And you already took care of everything. Crap." Nicolas said in an awkward tone.

He however was greeted by the sight of Leandros and his pack of robot wolves in the command squad. The robot Lucario crossed his arms standing in front of Nicolas apparently showing the robot's personal disdain towards the human's late arrival. "Combat concerns have been addressed. Multiple hostiles neutralized, combat efficiency at peak condition. Zero Jackal Guards casualties, all combat units functioning." The robot pokemon stated coldly to Nicolas. "Uh yeah Leandros let me and Belisarius take care of the talking thing since you're taking my… dad's edgy part a bit too far." Said Charlie with a frustrated sigh on the comms as Leandros tapped on his right inner ear before letting out a sigh himself. "If you wish, Demigod."

Nicolas looking at Leandros blunk for a moment feeling a lot of things were missing. "Edgy part? Oh you mean Anubis? When did he have a kid? Why is he using pokemon?" Nicolas asked in repeated questions.

Belisarius held up his hand and cleared at his throat cutting Nick's questions off before he could ask too many at once. "The main thing you should be taken out of this is our army's effectiveness. Our chain of command, and its oddities to you aren't of concern. We are effective and that is what matters." Belisarius stated.

Nicolas nodded raising his palms. "I wasn't saying anything. I just feel a bit confused. And alarmed because I think you guys might be contracting actual natural normally wild kaiju to help you guys. Although… I kinda see why with Jr. Eh screw you guys can fill 'em in on missing details later." Nicolas finished.

"Hey uh… Leandros, where's Anubis right now? Is he on the Tartarus yet?" Charlie asked Leandros curiously. However, the robot Lucario crossed his arms and shook his head to Charlie dismissively this caused him to feel awkward. "Negative, Lord Anubis stated that he needs to stay in Arsinoe before regrouping with the others." Leandros stated to Charlie raising more questions from the robot arctic wolf.

XXXX

Back in Arsinoe's Temple of Thoth, Anubis was busy looking into the Banyan tree in the courtyard of the temple. There, he began to look into the thick undergrowth of the tree noticing a wall with a pyramid symbol carved on it. "Alabaster stone, golden hieroglyphs, I'm on the right path." Anubis thought to himself before he quickly drew his sword slashing the roots and overgrown vegetation, clearing the way into the stone block. He pushed the block inward and found there was a secret chamber deep within.

The Jackal Deity slide down the sandy gorge into the chamber finding that the place appeared to be a small treasure chamber of sorts, beside the various wealth and belongings of the dead here, he saw an altar where a golden sphere sat comfortably on a soft pillow, before it were two short blades sat crossed against one another.

The blades had an emerald green hue to them with their hilts bearing Thoth Ibis likeness. "The Blades of Thoth? What are they doing here? Did he hang them here to renounce violence? What is this orb?" Questions raced through Anubis's head as he grew more and more curious before picking the blades and their scabbards.

Once he picked up the golden orb however, he felt an electric surge through his brain causing him to fall to his knees. He soon saw a vision force fed to his eyes and a series of sensory overloads.

He saw a void of dark blue and the sand simulated by countless lines of glowing amber particles, then finally he saw the silhouette of the canid deity holding his bow and quiver of arrows on his back, following behind him were soldiers of Egypt, possibly New Kingdom period judging by their white trousers and head dress. Their large oval shields made from tanned leather and the chariots riding archers armed with composite bow.

The vision came and went in a quick manner, soon enough, Anubis was back to the normal world as he ran out of the temple and made his way back to the Tartarus's rally point by the Suez but in the back of his mind, he knew something has to be spoken by his elders.

XXXX

While in Alexandria, it was night time with Thoth sitting on a chair inside the Kibotos Arsenal workshop. He let out a sigh as his armor plates were disengaged from their locking ports, they were levitating off of him, revealing the shiny synthetic flesh underneath. He was exposed as a naked anthropomorphic ibis with a fair bit of muscles on his lean and athletic body. His genitals were rather long and fairly round as well as his endowed buttocks hiding his anal port, which was penetrated by a cable lodging up there to regulate his energy during maintenance. He cringed a first but moaned out comfortably and blushed for a brief moment.

The one operating on him was a doppelganger, but one that he holds a love-hate relationship to. The Abyssal Scribe, the robot Ibis that was made from Thoth's image bearing his signature elongated beak, and identical appearance and height. The most notable differences between them being the Abyssal Scribe's purple eyes, jet black armor. His gauntlets had octopus motifs while then his shoulders seem to have Ibis decors on his armor. Like Thoth, he constantly carries a Book of Thoth around, but this version was written in cryptic pictograms.

"Tell me again Scribe, weaponizing my body would help improve how I deploy my spells, correct?" Thoth asked cautiously as he watched the Scribe operating the mechanical arms to surgically operate on Thoth's body, opening up his left wrist and began to work on its inside to install a new wrist cannon. "Fear not, I've weaponized my own body already, using my own ingenuity and shared memories, my lovely template. It's only fair that I share that advances with you." The Scribe boasted to Thoth, he was in fact having a boner seeing Thoth's body being modified and weaponized. As he was working however, the two were intruded by the Abyssal Crow.

"Lovely evening isn't it? How are you two doing my love birds?" Said the Abyssal Crow with a sophisticated soft spoken voice as he began to dip his own body into the bathtub with Thoth. "I'd prefer you'd wait. But doing well at the moment, thank you." Thoth replied with a warm smile at the Crow as he came over to inspect Thoth up close, seeing his face under the metal helm and headdress put a smile on his face, he would then lifted Thoth's chin up with an index finger and nuzzled Thoth's beak. "How are you and Ra?" Thoth asked with a happy chirp escaping his beak.

"Going well, it wasn't easy at first but he got over the grumpy part. On one condition…" He paused with a playful smirk looking at Thoth, expecting a reaction from the High Vizier. "What would that be?" Thoth asked curiously. "That is he gets to be part of our relationship, you guess it, retirement is coming for him." The Crow and Thoth both let out a hearty laugh of joy hearing this condition, innocent as it sound, Thoth was for once glad that Ra finally trusted Horus with the maturity to be a Pharaoh on the throne.

Soon, the Scribe had Thoth's armor being reassembled on his body ports with his left gauntlet now having panels and highlights. Thoth saw that his gauntlet can now house a built in wrist cannon that fired the stunning shot of his Evade and Punish ability.

"Impressive, I can see you being a creative mind Scribe. IF… I have an input in what you could be cooking up." Said Thoth in a stern and assertive tone to the Scribe as his armor was reassembled, he however felt the Scribe spanked his tight and well endowed ass, making a loud clank.

"Of course you would! Why should I exclude you from the process? Anyway, where were we?" The Scribe and Crow sandwiched Thoth in between them with the Crow behind Thoth reaching forward and fondled his crotch to bend Thoth into putting his ass towards the Crow's crotch. The Scribe forces a kiss on Thoth's lips while having his hands on Thoth's chest feeling the pectoral region.

Just when the intensely romantic and intimate moment was heating up for them, it was cut short for Thoth's sake when he saw his HUD beeping with a call from Anubis. If the Abyssal Scribe was here, he would have no doubt be either annoyed or glad to have the Crow distracted by his mate.

Thoth raised his finger to the Scribe with an anxious sweaty smile stuck on his face. The Scribe in turn scoffed and crossed his arms over his muscular chest impatient and rather displeased he was being interrupted and delayed. "Oh fine. Ruin the mood every time." The Scribe asked Thoth.

Thoth didn't exactly respond with a full answer and made a quivering anxious throat clearing sound to the Scribe."Uh just a moment." Thoth replied to him as he tapped one end of his ear to answer the call coming from anubis. "Uh. Hello? Anubis? H- hello. You uh called at a very very… awkward moment." Thoth said while his heart was beating intensely while feeling the close proximity of the Scribe and Crow sandwiching and dry humping his body.

"I put us on the line with him, let's hear it Anubis." The Scribe mused seductively to Anubis over the line making Thoth rather concerned for Anubiswith what the Scribe had done to Anubis in Thoth's body. "Anything of interest young one?" The Crow asked Anubis with intrigue as he stroked his chin, letting go of Thoth's arm and backing away for a moment to give him a moment to compose himself.

"Okay Anubis, what can I assist you with?" Thoth said in a prouder, more open voice before following up with softer jittery. "And can you please assist me with something please…"

They heard the sound of Anubis's voice grumbling and sighing on the other end of the line as he began to speak up to them. "I'm in the Realm of Titans, I found something here, Thoth's old Dual Blades called the Blades of Thoth. And another thing, an orb that glows like the sun buried under one of his temples in Arsinoe in the Sinai Peninsula. Also of note is that it seems to show me a ghostly vision of the past of a deity that looks identical to me." Said Anubis in a grumpy voice as the Abyssal Crow rose an eyebrow mentally out of intrigue, the Scribe himself also found it to be rather interesting how he never knew of this despite sharing Thoth's memory.

"Excuse me you found wha-" Thoth blurted out suddenly. He abruptly stopped himself. An odd move. Both the Scribe and the Crow looked at Thoth rather confused with his outburst before noticing him becoming a more anxious person. "Uh. No I do not know of that image you saw. I would wager that the realm tried to worship us deities like others have. Uh. I give you thanks for securing my former weapons, but if you could just leave those swords there please. I left that side of me behind. I don't want them to put it bluntly." Thoth said.

"Ah so you were an edgelord!" the Scribe blurted in between course sound moans as he was pleasured up.

"Can't do with that Thoth, it's too dangerous to leave a deity's weapon in a place beside a deity. I'm bringing them back to you. Meet me on the Tartarus, Suez Canal in the Titans Realm." Anubis would then hang up the call on Thoth and let him to think about what the Jackal Deity had spoken and his commanding attitude with Scribe being rather excited to hear of the desired assistance. "So we are going on a vacation? A bloody combat vacation more like." The Scribe grinned to Thoth.

Thoth moved away from the two though feeling grossed out still. He had his book out and ready pulling it off of a nearby table, and sighing. "Oh dear he can't know. He can not know about him." Thoth repeated to himself before looking anxiously at the two other Abyssal deities.

"Know about what? What was that call about? Some identical twin? Regardless, I feel our talents can be of use here. Of absolute vicious destruction and glorious squiggly combat." The Scribe said.

"Go into Titan's realm? I- That's not a very good idea. I haven't even calculated your strengths yet." Thoth replied.

"It matters not Thothy, what matters is family goes first. Anubis needs help and I owe him a debt of gratitude." Said The Abyssal Crow as he huffed out cockily before forcing a kiss on Thoth's lips and pulled him in, squeezing his rumps in the process before letting go.

The Crow then handed Thoth his crotch plate to attach it back to place. "Suit up, whatever it is I'd like to know how I don't know about it." The Crow then stretched out popping the robot joints inside of his body.

Thoth after the slightly lewd love making session sighing to himself feeling anxious. After about a couple clicks he replaced his crotch piece into place locking it into position and shielding his nethers. "Fine. Right. Stand back please. I'll get us a portal to the Tartarus." Thoth declared. He set his book down on the ground right in front of his feet turning the holographic amber pages as it layed open. He snapped the fingers of his right hand causing the book to quake vibrating before finally a blue colored black hole like void portal was opened for them to take. "There we are. One at a time please."


	7. Chapter 7: Tactical Assessment

**(Author's note: the chapter you are reading now is a reworked from its original version. This entire story is undergoing a massive overhaul one chapter at a time. So you may have some contradicting information as you read the story, I will let you all know when will the overhaul is done.)**

* * *

Chapter 7: Tactical Assessment

Jerusalem Old City, Temple Mount

Unknown Catacomb

2 hours after the battle of Nekhel

Even when afforded the luxury of anonymity and protection, the council of Vipers did not feel safe enough to walk around in broad daylight or even drive around in convoy of SUVs, regardless of how they appeared. Prudent as the serpent that was their organization's namesake, the council traveled at night, on foot. They converged on the Temple Mount in the Old City but not for prayers and mass at the dead of night.

Their escorts led them to an elevator descending down to the lower levels of the holy site, much deeper than what normal pedestrians were allowed. Inside what would best be described as an archaeological dig site of a catacomb. There they were hurdled into a conference room with bullet proof glasses allowing them to see through and observe the catacomb digging operation going on outside.

Within the confines of their glass cocoon, the council of three was assembled to discuss matters regarding their tactical operations after the recent turn of events in the Sinai. The conference began once they were seated by a large oak desk with their aides.

Before them was a TV screen showing surveillance footage from drones and combat troops on the ground. All of whom were facing what appeared to be an army of Anthropomorphic Robot canines of the Jackal and Wolf varieties. "Shit… they beat us to the punch." One of the aides mumbled upon seeing a robot wolf ripping out the crew of an APC and slashed them to bits, a flaming red wolf with gold eagle painted on his chest.

"Tell me about it, the Jackal of the Duat seems to have tricks up his sleeves, everytime." Another aide commented as he watched the army of Anubis apparently able to repel the armored counter attacks against the town to force the enemies to capitulate and accept defeat. "Jasper, any ideas what these are?" one of the councilmen asked his colleagues.

Jasper was one wearing heavy armor suits with a pin like a helmet that sported a pair of red lens for his eyes. But the overall gothic heavy metal aesthetic of the armor that bore the Viper symbol on its chest seems to suggest someone who either can't be taken seriously or must be taken seriously, albeit with a great deal of cringe.

"Pretty obvious you moron, the revolution of warfighters. The damn guard dog of Hell has beaten us to the punch with his robots running on our troops." Jasper stated with a huf to his counterpart before glaring over to his colleagues. "So anyone here has any ideas how to beat the snot out of those tin cans?"

"I do have one." Said one wearing a dark red heavy HAZMAT combat uniform with green bubble glass helmet and an oxygen tank on the back. "Perhaps I can unleash the arsenal of toxins and nukes on them to stall them down?" He suggested with a heavy breathing and grunting voice that seemed to dumbfounded the other two.

"Balthazar, that has to be the most pitiful idea you've ever come up with for masturbation. What about you Casper? Any idea that doesn't involve nukes or WMDs to blow your loads too soon?" Jasper asked cruelly to the other councilman who was sporting what appeared to be a black PASGT helmet with red metal facemask and mono visor across his eyes.

"A simple solution is to beef up our grunts. We can squeeze Orion's balls and molest their GDI patron. But not Anubis's tin cans. I have been working on our own counterparts to his robot army, but I will need time to finish the project and deploy it at a reasonable number to change the tide." Casper stated with his fingers twiddled around as he glanced back and forth at the other two.

"Right, so we throw our grunts out there to die while you tinker with your project. Perfect! Brilliant! In the meantime we might as well become the next chow of Apep. But who fucking cares, let's just cleanse 10 more settlements to get grounds for your project." Balthazar roared out into sudden rage as he flailed his arms around in the air. "Fine we'll fucking do it nerd, but if we fail this shit, we might as well kiss our search for the Tomb goodbye as well." Balthazar finished huffing out in disappointment and frustration.

[hr]

Suez Port, Egypt, 4 hours after the Battle of Nekhel…

Anubis was onboard the Tartarus with his troops guarding the ship or going through their After Action Reviews, updating the archives with their combat data and memories being uploaded into the archives for review. At the moment Anubis was on the bowl of the ship tapping his toes, waiting for the arrival of Thoth and the Abyssals.

In his hands were the Blades of Thoth with their emerald green hilts bearing the image of Thoth showing the exotic designs that could only be that of the Gods. His waiting didn't last long to the point of frustration as he saw the portal opening up on the deck of the ship with Thoth coming out of it with the Abyssal entities. The Abyssal Scribe and Abyssal Crow. "So you've arrived… just in time I suppose." Said Anubis as he began to come over to them.

Thoth looked down at the blades that held part of his name. A rush of nostalgia hit him as he looked down at them, but he seemed anxious as his metallic face seemed to display signs of real stress. He didn't even try to grab them or hold them. He could really only focus his amer eyes down on the blades. "Oh so it was this realm I managed to hide- I mean leave those…" Thoth said. His voice carried a half truth though.

The Crow looked down to the blades taking them for himself. In both hands he swiveled at the wrist twisting the blades around seeing what the shined like. The Abyssal Scribe though looked at the blades though not only seeing their shape, but a rather anxious greedy look. "D-d-d-d-d-d-dayum! What happened to your fighting spirit Thoth? These are a lot more beautiful and deadly. I was just thinking these as some edgy part of you. They actually look eye-catching." The Scribe said.

Anubis hearing this raised an eyebrow to Thoth apparently his suspicion was growing fast as his desire for answers became a high priority. "Anything you would like to add Thoth?" He asked Thoth demandingly to Thoth. Almost like an interrogation than a friendly chit chat, the jackal's robot eyes glew with an amber hue that seem to suggest his assertiveness was kicking in.

"My dearest High Vizier, you seem to have an interesting life under your belt there. Much that I wish to know, or have already known." The Abyssal Crow chuckled and grinned tauntingly to Thoth as he slowly moved his palm up on Thoth's rumps and the Scribe's own at the same time.

Thoth however walked towards Anubis. He glared at the Crow though feeling this was a rather well made strategy for him to get closer to Anubis. Thoth sighed out though seeing Anubis anger. "N- nothing else… Well, nothing else that is of my ability to share with you. For It's not something I can disclose without… Breaking my own honor to keep certain issues private…" Thoth said with a gullp.

"Oh he's about to drop a bombshell on us. Delightful." The Scribe said. He held out his right hand and summoned a carton of what looked like slimy popcorn that flamed a purple flame above well burnt bulbs of unknown food. It smelled less like buttered popcorn and more of burnt fire.

"Go on already. Make it brief." Said Anubis with a gruff voice to Thoth. It felt like a jackhammer chipping away at his head for Thoth before he finally had to disclose the secret he had been keeping. "Anubis… there is something you must know. You were not the only son of Set, there was another before you, a long time ago. But I lost him after fighting him over… no I can't speak of it here. But I can tell you his name, Wepwawet the Opener of the Way. Son of Set Sutekh before you. You can say a brother of sorts." Said Thoth as Anubis grunted in surprise hearing this as he took a step back from Thoth upon hearing the name and relationship he had. "Intriguing. That would explain why Ra was so adamant with finding Anubis." The Crow added, stroking his chin in thought at Thoth.

The Scribe chewing on a beakfull of some void popcorn suited almost bored out of his mind. "Really? Well that's anti climatic. Still some good drama and heartache. Aching coulda been better." The Scribe said making the popcorn disappear in a purple cloud that poofed. Thoth though after dropping the information looked to Anubis's face depressed.

He saw Anubis sighed out and handed him the Blades of Thoth in their scabbards and let him tie the blades on his waists as easy to access melee weapons should the need arise. "Never lose the Blades. A deity's tool is not to be sealed away in Mortal's Vaults." Said Anubis as he sighed out heavily to Thoth and crossed his arms.

"You'll be needed, I want to know about Wepwawet, who he was, his role and everything else. For now, I have a little something I need to work on." Anubis then passed through the Abyssal deities and Thoth as he went inside the ship.

As the glass doors slid open, the Abyssal Scribe and Crow saw the first person to greet Anubis was a short blue robot jackal shaped in the image of a Lucario Pokemon. An odd addition to Anubis's army, the robot bowed his head to greet Anubis as he saw the Abyssal Deities came inside following the Jackal deity.

The Scribe for one seems to have an odd look at the Lucario robot. The cartoonish anime esque looks and body style seems to be out of place for all of Anubis's army. "Uh. Aren't you a little short for the Jackal Guards?" The Scribe said trying to place his finger on what he felt was off with Leandros.

Leandros glanced his head upward at the Scribe and made a stone cold robotic assessment of the Scribe as he stood still like a statue. "Subject Identified: Abyssal Scribe AAU Frame - Unit 002. Classification: Mage Automaton. Hostility classification: Neutral." Leandros stated as he kept his attention at the Scribe.

"Make that chaotic neutral." the Scribe said huffing out. He tapped Leandros's snout several times before moving his hands down and around Leandros's body feeling for his muscle structure.

Thoth having to watch this though felt this was a multitude of issues going wrong at once. He could see a perverse looking face develop on The Scribe's face. It only got worse as tendrils slid out of his back and inches their ways closer to Leandros. Their rather slimey tips started to frisk the sides of Leandros's body and the front side of his muscles. "Uh. Scribe can you tell me what the purpose of your actions are?..." Thoth asked.

"Just researching. I can't tell what he is. Not synthetic, but not fully robot. I can't tell if there's a soul in his body. Oooommm but he feels well rounded…" the Scribe said wrapping his extra appendages around Leandros's frame. Outside of Leandros's attractive appeal there was something about the way The Scribe tested out Leandros's build inspecting his body as if to find his schematics.

As Scribe was inspecting the robot Lucario, Leandros noted his hand moving about, wrapping the tendrils around his body as the robot began to take his step away to follow Anubis gently. Not before replying to the Scribe's touches on his body. "Registered physical contact contains unknown Abyssal Void properties. Deducing intention to be sexual. Consent denied." The robot stated, this would cause the Crow to shake his head disapprovingly to the Scribe as he followed the party inside to the Promenade deck of the ship. "I advise caution to you little one, the Scribe can be… invasive to your body. But I must say you look rather appealing and easy on the eye." The Crow commented with a grin towards Leandros.

The Scribe's grin was a lot more threatening even showing actually pointy teeth on his beak. He retracted his tendrils down his back inside of his body before dusting his hands off stroking them at each other. "No need for me to get so excited though on one odd being. I want a tour of this ship. Ring me around this luxury… and rather morbid place. Egh I can feel something heavy here." The Scribe spoke.

As the tour group went about in the ship's interior passing by the robots manning the place and working about. Of course, as they went further to the medical wing of the ship, the Abyssal Crow and Abyssal Scribe were able to feel the tragedies of countless innocent mortals, their lives ended in a sudden by a hail of bullets and service bots they thought were there to help them. "Such tragedies, and you are no doubt their avenger." The Crow mused tersely to Anubis and Thoth, which made Thoth blunk in surprise at how poignant it was.

They soon arrived at a morgue where the bodies of terminated Viper operatives were stored with a toe tag on them. One of the bodies had a white sheet covering it showing it was prepared for surgery.

The robot Lucario then removed the sheet to reveal the dead corpse apparently had a bullet hole on his head and another on his chin mask. The Viper Operative's uniform appeared to be Hexagonal digital desert camouflage with a tactical body armor and webbing for magazines.

"Hostile Unit 539, found in Nekhel, killed by Unit Belisarius with two shots to the head. One on the forehead and another on his chin." Lucario briefed the group as they began to remove the mask and helmet as well as arachnid like goggles. The face beneath however was a narrow face, corpse like pale with a pair of narrow irises in his eyes like a serpent. His skin seems to have serpent scales with a fork tongue sticking out. The cranial structure in fact seems to have devolved to a more serpent-like appearance.

It started to make sense to the group after the alarming reveal of what the average viper unit was. Thoth got closer to the dead trooper though pulling off more of the armor. He seems horrified face wise, but his face also showed some genuine intrigue. "This I can help with. Easily. This explains though how they are akin to Apep. At least in my eyes. It makes sense. They are all… Serpentine. Reptilian. Snakes… If I recall Apep as a being likes to print his image onto others. Narcissitically like a disease." Thoth said removing more of the Viper's armor.

"No need to state the obvious. I can remember things I never experienced. Fighting by Set's side. Of which I never once did. But I may have another ager. What if this is Apep creating his own branding of soldiers under his image as a means to mock the Jackals? Anubis's image in his army, and Apep in his?" The Crow said to them. The statement made Thoth pause out of all people. Something he was almost too afraid to even speak of.

"Plausible hypothesis. Enemy biology suggests alteration to their genetic makeup." Leandros stated as he picked up a pair of latex gloves to put over his paws and picked up a scalpel for surgery work. Anubis too was putting on a pair of latex gloves and held up an incision tool to begin cutting through the flesh and hides.

As they removed the body armor and uniform, they found the torso section seems to have scales of what appeared to be a King Cobra species, earth brown and shiny tan color with the scales overlapping one another to form a more protective layer. "Simple genetic alteration, but still damaging to the mental health of the average grunts." Said Anubis as he found it difficult to cut through the flesh of the Viper trooper.

"Here allow me to do something perhaps better. Maybe with a little less mess and some more ease." Thoth said. He pointed the index finger of his right hand outwards. On the tip of his finger glew a hint of cyan. He then placed his finger down onto the chest of the Viper before slowly pulling his finger towards digging into the flesh of the soldier.

As they saw though the odd gently magic Thoth applied seems to cut the Viper right open. As he promised though it was a lot less of a mess, and seemingly more effective compared to cruder sharp instruments.

As the innards of the Viper were cut open and revealed to them, Leandros began to carefully remove some of the organs from their positions inside the body for inspection. He found that the organs seem to have taken on a much darker color tone with the organs being much more reptilian like for the lungs being meant for breathing underwater more easily.

Almost like an amphibian or more relatable in this realm, a Godzillian. The other organs for the time being stayed mostly intact but Thoth and the Scribe could tell that the tampering with DNA structure and genomes could be much more subtle. "Organ modification noted. Functioning aquatic and amphibious bodies for maritime infiltration and river fording." Said Leandros.

"Indeed. A rather good choice I must admit. King Cobras can be quite proficient swimmers. As they live in tropical climates." Thoth said, placing some of the organs in formaldehyde.

"You'd think you'd get like a magical infinite storage box to hold all of that meat. Nah just stick it in preservatives the old way. No need for magic here." The Scribe joked poking a finger into the Viper's eye. "Oh could you imagine trying to kiss this thing? It would sink those lovely long fangs into your whole face. Mmm. Cold blooded killers."

However, it was the statement of the Vipers being cold blooded that peaked Thoth's intrigue. "Cold blooded? I wager they have been giving IR and thermal imagery issues then."

This peaked Anubis's own intrigue as he looked back at the weapons and gears of the average Viper trooper on the table next to the operating one. The weapons appeared to be an A-91M bullpup assault rifle capable of engaging targets underwater, it oddly enough didn't have a thermal scope but a Kobra sight made in Russia.

The other piece of equipment was an Arachnid goggle set, the multitude of optics seems to suggest different set of vision modes and zooming functions for recon. The goggle appeared to have a pair of mode one for IR mode to detect heat signatures and the other being a normal NV mode. Another set of goggles were present captured from a lower rank Viper Operative. This one didn't appear to be an Arachnid set but a monocle styled goggle for a single eye found in the Russian made Ratnik gear.

The Crow saw Anubis' cautionary look of interest, and cocked his head. "Are you perhaps thinking they are rather well equipped with modern military appliances? Or is it the fact their bodies are like a natural machine against infrared enemies? Hmm."

"What concerns me though is their natural biology. How they woud heat their blood up, and then cool it down like how all reptiles and cold blooded creatures operate. If there's a cycle we can perhaps use to their disadvantage." Thoth wondered.

"Perhaps but right now, we'll be in a tough term trying to figure them out along with this… Wepwawet. But first thing first, I'll have to get the Abyssals settled in with you Thoth." Said Anubis as he stroked his chin as he then removed the gloves and snapped his finger, mechanical robot arms of the surgery table would then take over the job for him as he and Leandros cleaned their paws to lead the avian deities away to their cabins.

Within the confines of the ship, Thoth and the Abyssals would see that the cruise liner that Anubis took made a rather luxurious Headquarters as they rode the elevator to the Cabin area overlooking a green park and shopping mall of the place.

Along the way, the Abyssal Scribe and Thoth's observant eyes would pick up the sight of Anubis and Leandros body languages and walking stances seems to mimic one another like mirror reflections of one another. This would be the most telling hint for Thoth in the making of each robot serving the Jackal Guards.

Once they had arrived at their room, Anubis opened the door of the cabin and allowed the two Abyssal avians entered the place for them to enjoy themselves. "Dinner at 19:00 hours. Don't be late for your bird seeds." Said Anubis grimly as he closed the door behind them. He then looked to Thoth and crossed his arms. "Thoth, perhaps you would want to inspect the robots around here? You've been out of the loop for a while." he asked with a raised eyebrow, Thoth saw that when Anubis crossed his arms Leandros would mirror the action.

Thoth looked down to Leandros a bit stunned. He didn't feel like getting to conclusions quickly though despite how much his mind was telling him to be alarmed by Leandros. How every minute thing Anubis did was pulled off by Leandros like a mirror. "Uh. yes please. How I am around with this, uh. New area of work." Thoth said.

"Alright follow me then, I might need to introduce you to the assembly plant in the lower levels of the ship." The Jackal Deity would then lead Thoth with him down to the bowel of the Tartarus itself. Once they arrived, Thoth saw what could be best described a robot assembly plant completely automated with industrial robots assembling various robot wolves and jackals together.

The process saw parts and various mechanical components being fashioned together before being assembled onto a mechanical skeleton with the components being welded into place. Then artificial muscles were applied into place protecting critical components and limbs except for sections like thigh compartments, palms and shoulders for built in weaponry. The robots were then encased in thick armor plates, some were angular Jackal like, others appeared to have more wolf curves to them.

As the new warriors were assembled together right before Thoth it seemed he had some cautionary thoughts about the mass production of so many warriors. It clearly required them to have less of a soul and more programming.

Something that seemed to disturb him about how the robots were assembled. He remembered in the early stages of the Guards the warriors were souls in bodies. All shaped in Anubis's appearance to help denote them. With the wolves though combined with Anubis's using less of his power there seemed to be something bothering Thoth.

"This is all fine and well… Just something that is lightly cautioning me. None of this seems to use your own powers Anubis. Rather powers you have adapted from a mortal race. Not the ones you were born or gifted with. None of it really resembles who you are as a god. Unless I'm missing the use of souls in these bodies." Thoth said with his voice in partial concern.

As Anubis walked Thoth around the assembly plant, the Ibis would see the robots being picked up by mechanical arms like dolls and action figures and placed on a pad where they were given their armor plates and cables programming them. In the process the robots were able to test out their muscle systems and motor functions. The fresh warrior stood still at attention when he saw Anubis standing before him with Thoth next to the robot.

It would seem they can recognize their authority figures well and when Thoth was near him he could sense deep within the robot's programming and consciousness, something odd struck him. He saw a vague blank vision of the robot standing behind a blown off car with its rifle in hands.

The robot was firing at some enemies in the distance with the battlefield being a modern Middle Eastern city. "Sanchez, contact 50 meters to your 12, next to the low wall!" Thoth heard a male voice calling, the robot consciousness in the vision immediately shift his focus over to the call outs and open fire. From the looks of it, how vague it was, it demonstrates to Thoth something of a memory of a mortal being copied into the robot's programming.

Thoth shook his head, and blunky. Metal feathers all over his body rose up alarmed with what Anubis was doing. It made some sense to him though. "So you are taking the experiences of lost souls, to program these robots? Leaving the real soul to lay at peace?" Thoth asked bringing his hand to the tip of his beak thinking more.

Anubis nodded to Thoth as he petted the robot wolf's forehead with his right hand gently. The robot remains still and motionless like a statue before Anubis gestured for him to leave and report to the other assembled robots. "Precisely. I've been pioneering my techniques a bit, and found that collecting experiences and copies of them from lost souls is a much more… effective method. I can insert the experiences into the robots, making them well prepared for battles beforehand and develop themselves further in the process."

As Anubis's words reached Thoth's ears the Ibis would see that the robots once assembled were quick to report themselves to a task or role delegation section of the plant where they had a weapon handed to them.

Either an Assault Rifle or an LMG, sometimes they have a marksman rifle and grenade launcher attachment. Once they had their weapons, the robot quietly walked out to the elevator and traveled up to the higher levels of the ship to the makeshift barracks area, the Cabin of the ship.

Thoth nodded though with a concerned look still planted on his face. It was hard for him to take in. Chilling even that the robots could have memories that weren't even theirs. "I'll speak to you more on this when our tour has concluded. It is frightening to know these are ghosts in metal bodies. At least they won't remember who they are replicating correctly?..." Thoth asked hopeful for a positive response.

"They won't. At least for now, the memories aren't meant to be replicated but rather to be used as a sort of case study and learning experiences for the robot's onboard AIs." Anubis stated to Thoth as they followed another batch of robots on an elevator ride to the higher floor.

This one seemed to be an overhauled theater of sort with the stage being completely redesigned into a massive VR practice range. Thoth and Anubis were seating in a high class box overlooking the stage with the robots assembled for what appeared to be a MOUT training scenario.

The course itself seemed to have advanced holographic projections and solid materials realized in the form of the ancient quarters of Jerusalem, the robots of the Jackal Guards were placed on one end of the stage. On the other end, Thoth saw gleaming albino tanned robot anthros similar to the grunts, but these seems to have heads modeled after Set Sutekh with scepters and swords in scabbards instead of modern weaponry.

The resemblance they had to Set though didn't particularly sit well with Thoth. Like a scar or wound that refuses to heal or go away. At least to him. He made a wince feeling Anubis despite many thousands of years had some particularly bad memories locked into him still. "So… What do you intend for the robots that look like Set?... The scepters make them appear as casters." Thoth said in a careful tone.

"They're meant to be elite unconventional forces within the ranks. A sort of Inquisitor and OPFOR manipulator in training scenarios to keep things as real as possible." True to his words, Anubis snapped his fingers, initiating the training session with the robots.

With the robots of Anubis pushing inward as squads covering each other's flanks, the Inquisitors on the other end of the battleground began to summon various VR entities, these were militants and cracked troops of Vipers all dressed in dark grey urban warfare military uniform with black PASGT helmets on their heads.

The VR militants began to open fire on the robots, spraying from behind any pieces of cover they could find. Others simply blindfire before retreating to higher grounds. The robot squads quickly divided themselves up into squads of 5 bots each before opening fire their Storm Rider rifles at the enemies, Thoth saw how Anubis's robots used hand signs and body languages to coordinate one another without using audio call outs or radio communication in such tight and confined spaces.

This was something Thoth saw in Orion's training. The Orion Sword combat operation as he recalled was more than just verbal language. To compensate for their vulnerabilities to jammers and loss of communication the training served a heavy dose of two types of communication. From soldier right down to Rex Unit. He leaned in closer. "Still admiring mortal methods? I shouldn't be too surprised to see the use of so many advanced items here." Thoth said commented.

"They know how to learn and compensate for their deficiencies. That is what makes them endearing." Anubis remarked watching the robot newbies pushing through the simulated streets of old Jerusalem.

One of the squad took cover behind a car while two of their robot units took cover behind a dumpster and covered their corners. While their second squad was moving behind them sprinting into an alleyway, one of the insurgents opened fire their heavy KORD Machine Gun at the robot, knocking one down on the ground, marking it as an WIA.

"Smoke out. CLU-02932 retrieve Unit CLU-02931 immediately. The rest of you cover fire." The squad leader ordered his troops and they executed their order immediately, opening fire on the KORD machine gun while his Rifleman robot dragged the downed Autorifleman of their squad into cover.

It was a lot for Thoth to take in. Already seeing the Jackal Guard modernize from antique formations now to more spread out modern guerilla tactics showed how they needed to modernize to survive. Or at least Anubis fascination with technology was shown to Thoth.

It was a lot different to him than massive sized Phalanx formations which would no doubt have no way of operating in modern environments. The simulated alleys, buildings and streets were way to confied for proper formations. He silently watched while taking notes in his book. His finger a blur of quick motions.

He and Anubis would see that the squad leader of the first squad held up two fingers, his index and middle finger and pointed at the two robots by the dumpster, he gestured them forward. The robots nodded and sprint forward, traversing the vertical surfaces with their hind legs and open fired on the KORD gunner, dropping him instantly.

The robots then regrouped by the street corner peeking over and they saw their objective, a large square by an important intersection. "Objective is to secure the square and establish CASEVAC point for our wounded, Alpha Squad lead the way, Beta Squad follow behind and keep your wounded safe." The Squad leader stated on the radio as they began to move down the streets 10 meters apart from each other.

The Set like robots overlooking the session seem to have an uncanny ability to set up ambushes with entities under their control with Alpha Squad spotting and engaging different squads of paramilitaries on the streets.

The Inquisitors would add other distractions and random events such as civilians running about for shelters, wounded paramilitaries armed with suicide vests and so on, in fact Thoth saw that the Jackal Guards robots opened fire in a double tap method against paramilitaries that were too close in proximities to them to make sure no bombs were detonated.

"Oh my! Simulated but no less real. And the Inquisitor there… Set would either be pleased or dismayed." Thoth sheepishly groaned as he watched the extreme violence of the demonstration grip at him deeply. So much so he had huddled and pressed his body into Anubis's left side taking the show much too seriously despite it being an extremely real simulation.

Anubis even felt his armor wrapped by Thoth's hand. This happened more as innocents poured in. Combined with the close call suicide vest wearers the show seemed to stress Thoth compared to what he's used to normally.

Thoth would see that once the robots were at their objective and called an all clear, the simulation dissipated leaving only a blank arena with the robots being allowed to resume their normal functions and assembled into a line formation checking their weapons and ammo. Anubis and Thoth could now come down to see them up close and to Thoth's surprises, the robots looking like Set bowed their heads to Anubis and Thoth first before greeting them proactively. "A pleasure to have you with us my lords. Our delegated tasks have been executed with utmost precision, these warriors are now ready for battles." Said the Inquisitor designated "CIX-0012 Imhotep".

After the demonstration was over Thoth turned his book over to face Anubis labeling a checklist and notes made on each item during the combat after it had been shown to him. It seems to have rather high with many positive points. Though it was rather shaky handwriting on his part. Something must have spooked him during the combat.

"The feeling is mutual Imhotep, I see that you are putting the recruits through their paces hard and fast there." Said Anubis as he examined the robot recruits being lined up with their weapons pointed downward with safeties turned on.

"I have, and as you have ordained the Mark 2.0 such as myself, we are to ensure the lesser bots take their missions seriously." Said Imhotep as he walked with Anubis and Thoth.

They would see that the robots were keeping their weapons safeties on all the time and for the Inquisitor being a Mark 2.0 robot, this raised Thoth's interest as to how many robot variants Anubis designed.

"How many different designations for the units have you established so far? There's mark 1.0, 2.0, and how far does the variants go after this?" Thoth asked with a curious tone.

"To clarify High Vizier Thoth, CIX models such as myself are Mark 2.0 of the Assault Bot class. We take up duties of training by posing as OPFOR and commanding X factors in battles. Mark 1.0 are the basic grunts of the army such as these CLU units. Stands for Combat Lupine Units, they're the most versatile design and can be modified for various roles. Mark 1.5 is an upgraded CLU unit, or CLU-I for short usually designed for officer roles and as the case with Unit Belisarius and Arminius, act as Commando bots." The Inquisitor disclose patiently to Thoth as they followed the bots up to the top deck of the ship where they spread out and begin to patrol the Tartarus's deck.

This was the key info Thoth jotted down into the glowing pages of his advanced book. As he did so he hummed under his breath speaking of what he was writing. "CIX for...training, and CLU for...combat. Note: Acronym, Combat Lupine Units. I have it. More pages to fill." Thoth said.

After he took his face out of his book he looked around the main deck. It was here though where Earl Lupus managed to get a distress out as well as a hard battle It had since been repaired, but he could feel some heaviness in the atmosphere still.

"Set sail! Set course for the Ascalon, moor us off the coast." Anubis ordered the crew of the ship as the Tartarus began to pull up its anchor and withdraw from the pier. The ship would then begin to cruise out to the Mediterranean Sea slowly and head out to the coast of Israel, on the sky and ground they could all see the Egyptian military were massing at the border between Israel and Egypt, no doubt war was upon the horizon for all and they would be in the thick of it, whether it's on the frontline or deep behind it.


	8. Chapter 8: Opener of the Way

**(Author's note: the chapter you are reading now is a reworked from its original version. This entire story is undergoing a massive overhaul one chapter at a time. So you may have some contradicting information as you read the story, I will let you all know when will the overhaul is done.)**

* * *

Chapter 8: Opener of the Way

1458 BC, Canaan…

With the scorching sun on his back, the unforgiving sand in his eyes and the whispering of the mystical desert wind in his ears, the omen was apparently a good campaign. He perched on the rock of a hilltop overlooking the nearby land.

A valley before him with the depressions of the land filled with sand and the shadows of rock formations casted on the ground. "The neket iadet Canaanites are near, a handful of scout perhaps, but I can feel their army is near." He thought to himself before sliding down on the rocks before hopping off landing on his feet gracefully.

He then sprinted across the land kicking up dust and sands in his wake as he came up to a nearby hill overlooking the valley, from which he saw the advancing Egyptian Army with its massive horde of war chariots kicking up a sandstorm in the distant.

At the forefront of battle was none other than pharaoh Thutmose III himself leading the expedition into the Levant. "There's the Pharaoh, and his army is marching in good order, but this valley is a death trap, I need to make sure nobody can ambush them." The canid deity thought to himself as he leapt off of the hill top and slid down the sand towards the nearby rocks, he saw before him a group of rebel scouts, all of whom were wearing some form of armor protection and rode on fast ponies.

"Fast movers like these are pesky troubles. Better dispatch them and their masters." Wepwawet thought as he followed the scouts on their way towards their camp. The thoughts in his mind were racing from a company, a battalion or even a full stacked army. Regardless, he must make sure they can't fight the Egyptian army with ease.

He soon saw that the scouts were entering a camp in the desert, the size is fairly large, about a company of sort. But more than enough to be of concern should they strike the wings of an advancing army or even the baggage train. "May The Hidden One walk these wretched to the afterlife. The Duat awaits these scums." Wepwawet muttered as he held up his bow and arrows.

The Opener of the Way would then rise up from the rocks he hide behind and fired his arrows in successive waves at the camp, the arrows flew hide in the air, obscured by the sun light of Ra before landing down on the camp as fiery flame arrows. The arrow tips struck the camp tents and pierce the thin fabric setting the place ablaze along with the supply crates made of wood and timbers.

Wepwawet would then nock several more arrows and dash forward at the camp. He pounced into the air and aimed his arrows at the rebels, he fired them in rapid succession, downing the Canaanite rebels rather quickly.

The grey wolf deity of Egypt would then snatch a short stabbing sword of a fallen captain and thrust it into the heart of one of his opponents as the Canaanite rebels would flounder in his assault. They abandon their camp and head for the nearby mountains running on foot or horses as fast as they can as Wepwawet rained additional arrows on them.

The retreating Canaanite rebels though weren't alone in the area, Wepwawet saw that as they were heading off to their safeties, they were soon replaced by a large cavalry force, fast moving and fairly well armed and equipped to take on Wepwawet. Mortals they were in the end, Wepwawet smirked at them cockily apparently having the thought of them begging for mercy from him in mind. He mounted his bow on his back and clenched his hands together to summon the wind of the desert.

This morphed him into massive canine deity in the desert manifested in the wall of sand and wind viciously blowing at them. The sand blew at high speed by the wind, propelling like a billion tiny knives tearing through the armor plates and fabric of the Canaanite rebels and their horses. This fell the cavalry one by one, dropping them like flies as he began to bury his foes with impunity.

It was the memories of Wepwawet in his elements, as viewed by Anubis into the Spherical artifact, which he dubbed "Apple of Eden". The object was hooked into the computer mainframe with various suction cups placed on its surface.

The computer has a cable hooked up to Anubis's Neuro outlet port to allow him to interface directly with Apple. "So Wepwawet, Opener of the Way, a war deity of Egypt and a scout of its army led them into Canaan during Thutmose III's campaign to reclaim the rebellious province. So far a promising warrior and loyal champion to the Nile. But what happened to him?" Anubis pondered deeply in thoughts as he watched the memories dissipated slowly from view.

XXXX

Port Said, Egypt

Present Day

Having spent a whole day of hard fighting, Grady was exhausted in his Regiment HQ. He sat by the desk with various maps of the Sinai Peninsula. Overlays with charts and troop movements showing him REDFOR and BLUFOR axis of attacks and defensive lines. "Still working on analogues?" Joe asked coming into the HQ building, which was actually a pair of containers cut up and put together with some door frames installed on the side. "Yeah well… I don't mind the BCT Management System. It's just good practice to rely on these first."

"Can't fault your logic. But sometimes speed is necessary for violence of action." Joe remarked as he sat down by the table across Jason with his real time digital map display of BLUFOR trackers showing the line has been stabilized and pushed back to the border between Egyptian-Israelis border. Some of Orion Sword's mobile forces were just behind the GDI's Heavy Brigade Combat Teams manning the frontlines, clearly they were busy setting up rear area facilities to assist the frontline fighters. "Yeah well sometimes, speedy actions based on bad intel gets you killed. Exhibit A: Iraq 2003." Jason remarked before going over some of the more high tech options he had for monitoring and managing his GDI's ground troops.

The command staffs in the HQ were going over their Laptops and satellite communication network to keep them aware of enemy movements. So far they saw that Vipers were building up their forces again, possibly for a second offensive to regain momentum and initiative. "I sure hope the GDI manned the border with decent troops. Otherwise our crisis is far from over." Said Joe as he pointed to the areas manned by GDI armor cavalry brigade.

"I wouldn't worry about them if I were you. What about… these guys?" Grady then changed to an area of the front that saw heavy fighting earlier in the day. The town of Nekhel, where surveillance drones, satellite scans, overhead spy plane flights, all show the town to have come under attack by the Vipers, beaten back by a force of robot wolves who took the town and held it. This turn of event bought time for the GDI and Orion forces on the frontline, had it not been for the Jackal Guards, perhaps the GDI and Orion forces would have been overrun and lost the Suez Canal. "That's what has been bothering me. They came out of nowhere, striking with precision and speed like we do. They turned the tide by severing enemy supply lines for us."

"Yeah but the question is why. What's the motivation and why do that for us." Jason sighed out exhaustedly trying to make sense of what has been happening. Joe then cleared his throat while getting them both cups of coffee before sitting down. "Jason there's something… I need to tell you. It's about one of those… things. Robot wolves. Remember in the 173rd HQ? When they perform grand theft auto on us?"

Jason grumbled and nodded, his interest was peaked at the moment of hearing about what Joe might know. "What is it? Back in Italy you looked like you saw a ghost." Said Jason with Joe rubbed his head not quite sure what to make of what he saw. "Because I did… or at least I think I did. I ran into one of those robot wolves… that thing and I got into a scuffle. But the moment it speaks… I heard his voice. Mr. Grey's voice coming out of its mouth."

Hearing this made Grady froze up, he was petrified like one of the gorgon's victims upon hearing it. He thought it was just madness or wild imagination running rampant, "Are you serious? What if that thing… that robot you ran into was just messing with you?" Grady asked Joe cautiously. "I wish… I sent Hera out on patrol, looking for where the vehicles were taken, and she found them." The Orion Sword commander then showed Grady extensive audio and video records from Hera's optics and surveillance suite, recording the full extent of her interaction with the robot wolf known as Belisarius as well as a robot jackal named Anubis. "What the hell…?" He uttered slowly.

"When Hera came back to us she was back to her normal Godzilla size, but when she ventured into their turf, she somehow shrunk down to human size. At least she was back to normal when we needed her to turn the tide. But still… I'm pretty sure you know what this means." Joe mused to Jason with the latter nodding to Joe and bit his lips looking at the image of the town of Arsinoe being used by the robot wolves as a base of operation for them in the Sinai. He wasn't sure why, but he felt that direct communication link must be established with them soon.

XXXX

Sitting by the laptop in his room, Anubis was busy at work typing into it with a speed unmatched by organics. On the screen were naval blue colored windows of programs and operations ranging from data encryption, VPNs, GPS and satellite connection and so on. He observed as the loading bar filled up on the screen connecting him to GDI's communication network. "Authentication Access: Black Viking. I need a line to Colonel Jason Grady." Said Anubis on the satellite phone call, this caused the operator on the other end of the line to have a near heart attack hearing Anubis's voice.

"Grady here, what do you want from us this time? I hope that it's not something too pushy like an actual mecha unit." Jason remarked with a tinge of uncertainty in his voice as he held the phone in his hand listen in carefully. Joe and Wallace were nearby listening in as well, still completely freaked out by the strange Jackal's demands.

"Nothing too much for you, I'm building my forces up to a full division, two Brigade Combat Teams if you will. Can I trust that you will provide me with the hardware and vehicles for them?" He patiently paused, letting Jason glanced around at both Joe and Wallace for a moment before hearing him reply. "Well… yeah I think I can negotiate that as long as I'm not dealing with the Devil." Said Jason with a sheepish tone as he looked at the PDA in his hand, the device seems to display a sort of shopping list sent by Anubis.

The list to Joe and Wallace seems fairly sizeable with requests for M5A2 Schwarzkopf Main Battle Tank made by Orion Sword, Stryker Dragoon IFVs by the GDI to upgrade existing inventory of Stryker ICVs, Oshkosh JLTV MRAPs, Blackfoot Gunship, V-120 Valkyrie VTOL of Orion for transport of his troops as well as M320 Spartan Howitzer.

"I'm sure that you wouldn't mind the purchase, I expect my shipment to arrive at the port of Ascalon in two days time since I'm landing my forces there. Payment in solid gold bars." Anubis would then hang up, leaving nothing but an account transfer into the GDI and Orion's shared account of around $22,000,000,000 worth and with Gold bars on the way to confirm the payment being well worth it makes the purchase all the more enticing.

"Its as if our answer would be a yes each time. You didn't even agree, Grady. He never would have taken 'no' for an answer. He… It just made a deal." Joe stated ringing his meaty hand to his face covering his expression while he leaned forwards in a hunch in his chair. Contemplating the new loss of vehicles, ammunition, and other objects the GDI uses. The replacements for the objects were already getting in his mind.

Looking at the exchange though Wallace Barringer he felt the agreement was rather beneficial towards the GDI and Orion Sword. The bold statement of gold bars was the biggest thing he saw with the deal. Actual physical precious metals in a large amount. Worth more than paper money to all cultures. "Yes, but admittedly with physical gold. We are at least getting something more valuable than well any currency. That has artificial values. The only real issue is acquiring more materials for building. And then of course finding a place to keep the gold." Barringer stated.

"The biggest problem is how to write off this amount of… contribution to higher ups." Joe said with a sarcastic voice. The situation's absurdity was getting to him. Trying to wrap his head around the sudden export of a multitude of vehicles to a being from a completely different universe didn't help his mind ease with any of it.

"Right… at least we'll get something out of this as long as we keep our mouths shut and don't ask too much about him or from him. Though I think…" Jason glanced over at Wallace Barringer and a thought struck his head as he scratched the back of his head a bit. "Wallace, maybe you can accompany the boys delivering the toys? I think we might need you to uh… do some tech recon on those robots. Especially the one named Belisarius and Arminius. Those two are giving us a headache over who they really are." Said Jason as he handed to Wallace a screenshot of Belisarius and Arminius taken from Hera's optics.

XXXX

The sun by now was setting on the horizon, dusk had come with the moon of Thoth appeared on the night sky and stars of Nut's body shine in the night sky glittering like diamonds and various celestial entities guided the Tartarus as the ship sailed closer to the coast of Israel.

Anubis was present on the deck of the ship observing the coast of Israel with a pair of binoculars. The city before his eyes was Ascalon, an old Medieval town now evolved into a modern city.

Approaching Anubis from behind him was Belisarius. As the ship approached from the Mediterranean he saw the odd town coming into view. There was enough light in the sky to give the town a silhouetted look. It seemed off to him. The mix of Medieval designs mixed haphazardly with globalized western architecture. "What on Earth are those designs? None of it really looks like they belong to each other." Belisarius grumbled.

"The work of modernity. This settlement changes face just as it changes owners." Anubis replied coldly as he put on the caps of the Binoculars on and let the equipment hung on his torso with the leather rope on his neck.

"Come on Belisarius, let's get you ready. I'm afraid you will have to lose the Roman color for something more effective as camouflage. You'd look like a walking target out there." Said Anubis as he came inside the ship's promenade deck where he saw Horus was hanging about with the other robots and Charlie, the two Abyssal deities were seen with Thoth as the place was like a common ground for them all to congregate.

Belisarius though followed Anubis with his hands still held behind his back. His face displayed a more disappointed look though feeling his pride of the country he once led under some type of threat as he needed to adapt himself. "So much has changed. When we were young, it was Phalanx and Manipular with respect to authorities. Now it's the move of a few." Belisarius said with a bitter voice.

Thoth listening to the rather sudden speech nodded in some agreement sadly. "Frankly none of it was a pleasant experience. Modern or ancient. If it assists your emotions though you will be getting your looks back onto your frame as the conflict dies down. Though I doubt that is an issue." Thoth replied.

"Negative. We are the best for the bitter task of war, and we will march in with pride. The fact of the matter is I'm still new to how many years have flown past since my departure. It's amazing how far strategies have evolved." Belisarius said.

Anubis nodded gently as he stood next to Belisarius, "True, it's hard to keep an old soldier down. I'll be back soon. Thoth keep the Abyssals here in control." stated Anubis as he walked away from the two to the lower decks of the ship leaving Thoth and Leandros to keep the Abyssals in control.

"To be honest with you Charlie, I am rather worried about the Abyssals. They're entities that while exist with a modicum of revelations, still shrouded in much mysteries." Horus spoke to Charlie as he took a sip of his glass of Whiskey. "I sure hope that whatever they are, they won't just backstab us out of the blue. I still find it odd that I can call you Uncle though."

Anubis and Belisarius came down to the lower decks of the ship using the elevator and would soon find themselves inside the workshop area of the robot factory onboard.

There, Belisarius stepped on a pad similar to the one he started with, the automated service arms around him began to blow over delousing agents on his body, washing away the old paint color of the crimson red Roman pallette.

Once his robot body was down to its basic grey metal color, he found that the robot arms were spraying a new paint job on his body, it was a pixelated gray and silver camouflage pattern often found on GDI and Orion Sword uniforms. The eagle of Rome was removed as well, replaced by a rank insignia on his left chest panel denoting his rank was currently that of a Staff Sergeant, the insignia was painted yellow with a dark olive green outline.

Next to the insignia were his unit's digit serial number and "BELISARIUS" name written in all cap next to a "CLU-I 01172" serial code number. His overall build didn't change much at all but the change in colors seems to make him a more fitting military unit of modern time.

The arms then moved back away, revealing that they have applied the Roman Eagle decal on his body. The one on his chest was where his heart was, apparently this was meant to help mark individual robots to know where they came from.

After the new paint scheme was grafted onto his body Belisarius leaned upwards, before getting himself back onto his feet. The paint hardened and dried quickly sticking onto his frame in a durable layer of camouflage. Not a finish to scratch easily.

One look at it and he felt like a million years passed him by, he already missed the unique coloration and style of his homeland. It was his identity that he felt was stripped away, but looking at the gold eagle symbol bearing the four words SPQR under it gave him some relief. He may not look the part, but he has the heart, the story of his upbringing as half Roman half Germanic barbarian.

As for the serial code, something felt off but familiar about it. Working with so many nameless robots he felt placed into the mix. A name not even his used to disguise his true self, and a serial code to hide him even further. He sighed out though having to accept this for his own sake. He pounded his metal fist on his metal chest making a loud clank. No paint scratches. "Beautiful." He stated.

Anubis observing from the side nodded to him approvingly as the robot arms were seen pressing another set of emblems on his pauldrons. It felt hot at first as the robot arms pressed on to him, some ticklish sensation followed as he felt something moving about on his metal body.

Seeing this though he felt a special accommodation had been made for him. He looked at the mirror and noticed an emblem of a wolf head silhouette with two crossed Gladiuses. Small and minor enough to blend in with the rest of his camouflage. He could tell that it was a parent unit emblem something akin to the standard bearer of a Legion. "A standard? Well it is a fine way to implement it."

Anubis nodded to Belisarius however, a grim look of naked honesty to the robot wolf. "That's your Legion standard. Legio XXI Ferra Lupina. In modern terms the Legion of old is now something of a Brigade numbering around 8000 men." Said Anubis as he took a sip of a cup of tea he had been holding. He gently let out a hum in thought feeling his body relaxed by the soothing properties of the tea affecting him. "Tea?" He offered Belisarius as the robot came off the pad.

The next person to step into the workshop was of course Arminius, accompanied by another robot jackal as a guide on the ship to help him just in case he was lost. "Belisarus? I didn't recognize you at first by the change in color, at least the name there helps along with the IFF module built into this body of mine." Said Arminius as he glanced down at Belisarius's chassis inspecting the color pattern. "Let's just say it's not the flashiest thing but it'd do in the modern battlefield." Said Anubis to Arminius as the purple robot wolf stepped onto the pad.

Once he was on, the delousing agent and paint wash agent were applied on his body, melting the purple dye away from his body leaving him leaving him with a grey metal color like normal wolves.

The robot arms then begin to spray a new paint color on Arminius, like Belisarius he was given a pixelated grey and silver color scheme to help blending in along with the environment.

On his left chest panel he saw the robot arms applying a gold eagle of Rome on his body denoting him and Belisarius from Rome, he then saw that the robot arms printing a serial code number and name on his chest panel. 'CLU-I 01173 ARMINIUS.' it said, glancing down at it, he tapped on the panel feeling the sturdiness of it. Not only that but he saw his rank being painted on his chest, Sergeant, one rank below Belisarius but necessary to lead a squad when the primary leader was away or down.

Belisarius felt impressed though seeing Arminius donning the much more modern camouflage. Seeing in full view of his longtime friend seemed to raise his spirits. They would be fitting in identical fashion as they have done so before. He nodded his head in approval. "Good. Let's see how this performs then in the environments we are to be placed into." Belisarius stated.

Arminius as he stepped off looking himself again and compared him to Belisarius, noting how the poetic feel of their first color pallette was gone and like Belisarius he felt off by the serial code and designation, although it was meant for hiding his identity he can still feel the uneasiness of being classed into the same group as the thousands of faceless robots without names or personality of their own. "It feels a bit off but one that I would do well with if it keeps me alive a little longer on the battlefield. Thank you Anubis." Arminius bowed his head respectfully to Anubis for a moment before he stood side by side to Belisarius.

Anubis looked back and forth at the two, before clearing his throat out at them apparently wanting to speak to them of something. "Oh and one last thing before we depart, I have something to give you two, mounted wrist grappling hooks and gadgets just in case." Said Anubis as he led them to a section of the workshop where the robots arms began to move to their right wrists.

The robot arms had their panels removed and the mechanical components were being installed into their arms, the process seems to be rather squeamish to look at even when one was a robot especially when the two saw the robot arms digging into their arm's interiors.

When their left wrists were done, they saw that each one had a new grappling hook ready. It came with a cable that can detach after the hook was launched. Their right wrists now had hidden daggers ready to draw out and stab their up close enemies. "This should be useful for traversing verticality." Arminius flexed his arm up and down feeling the sore and aching of the surgery, when he held his hand into a fist the hidden blade on his wrist flipped out of its compartment. Once he opened his palm up, the weapon was hidden inside his wrist and his cannon was seen charging up.

However, Belisarius's thought were leaning closer to other ideas. He flipped his wrist open causing the grappling to be fired out. Before its metal tip hit any part of the ceiling he flung his arm dowards accompanied by one leg moving backwards. His whole torso curling downwards bringing the grapple down. This caused the grapple part to strike the ground with a loud clang accompanied by bright sparks firing upwards. The grapple on his command retracted back to him and clicked back into his wrist. "I can use this a a blunt whip weapon. I can think of several ways to use this to my own advantage." Belisarius commented. A rare grin came onto his face. Feeling impressed by his body modifications.

"Hmm, very creative indeed Belisarius, something that is greatly needed out there as you lead your squad. We're about to launch our assault, report to the disembarkation deck now you two." Anubis ordered them, hearing this Arminius and Belisarius nodded and bowed their heads obediently to Anubis and crossed their right arms over their hearts before moving out.

XXXX

The Disembarkation deck was a starboard side of the ship where RHIBs were in position ready to launch their assault. Supporting them were rubber crafts to move troops ashore, the place had a large ram door retracting upward with the body of water filling up the launch bay for them to launch their assault.

Belisarius found that his squad had around 8 members, counting him, his mate Arminius and Charlie there were 5 other robots with identical camouflage color to them with only Charlie standing out like a sore thumb due to his arctic color.

Belisarius could recognize the 5 of them, CLU-01188 to CLU-01192 all of whom were members of his previous squad while in the Sinai. CLU-01188 was seen carrying an M240B LMG, his teammates were carrying identical assault rifles to Belisarius and Arminius with some attachments like grenade launcher, ACOG scope, laser sights and holographic sights.

Belisarius seeing this sighed out. It was a roughly familiar squad he was working with again. Rather, he had a chance to get to know better. Ones he's served with in repeated runs. He looked towards the ramp of the amphibious hovercraft/airboat and frowned.

There was another joining them however, Belisarius noticed Earl from earlier walked in with a Storm Rider rifle in his hands and a backpack carrying various specialist kits. "Hey there, I heard ya need another bot, so I might as well fill in." Earl stated in a relaxed and laid back manner to Belisarius, Arminius took it with a smile and shook Earl's hand. "A pleasure to have you with us out there Earl. Belisarius was equally joyous to see Earl joining them, the voluntary act was most welcomed and he embraced Earl with a bear hug and passionate kiss on his lips. "I'm glad to have you onboard, so who will you be filling in for?"

He saw Earl pointed to Arminius, whose Fireteam was only three robots, lacking a rifleman with specialist tools. Seeing this made Belisarius nodded and patted Earl's back, "Good luck out there. Alright now that we're all accounted for let's go."

"Affirmative Squad Leader, mounting transports now." The 5 robots replied in perfect unison as they quickly fanned out and embarked on the RHIB. Earl was seated just in front of Charlie, with Arminius next to him, Belisarius was seated to the front with the rest filled in the other positions. "So what's your role Earl? Last I saw you were a pilot." Arminius asked curiously as they began to disembark from the Tartarus cruising towards shore. "Oh I'm supposed to be the combat engineer for you guys. You bump into a wall, you punch through. You need me to blow down a building in one go, I'll do it."

"Hoplite this is Phalanx come in over." Leandros voiced crackled over the satellite radio built into them, with Charlie replying almost right away. "Phalanx, reading you loud and clear what's the deal?"; "Hoplite your objective is to get ashore and link up with our informant in the area. He'll provide intel on the enemy Air Defense battery in the area. Neutralize the battery so we can have air support from Horus. How copy?"; "Solid copy on all, we're moving with the quickest, out." Belisarius replied albeit somewhat robotically as they cruised closer to the beaches of Ascalon.

Once the RHIB was well within the beach of Ascalon, the robots quickly dismounted and waded ashore on their own and headed towards the nearby National Park along the beach. The terrains offered them some hiding spots as they waited for all to regroup. Once all nine of the wolfpack were accounted for, they continued with their mission. Belisarius used his hologram projector to show them a map of the city and the location of their target.

It would seem that the target holds up on the fourth floor of a nearby apartment complex. The area he was in had good sightline around the Neve Alonim neighborhood area. "Alright, it looks like we'll be having some room to room fighting. Stay sharp, watch out for snipers and booby traps." He instructed them cautiously before proceeding forward into the city's outlying province.

As the robots came closer, they saw the civilians ran away in fear, mothers grabbing their children and babies running from them fearing the presence of cold, unfeeling emotionless killing machines bringing the war too close to their own home. And perhaps for good reasons, they saw that the buildings now had various Viper propaganda posters, half torn missing person notices. The streets were quiet and deserted save for the sounds of enemy 4x4 driving around on patrol of the sector.

"The more things change the more they stay the same." Belisarius commented seeing the people running away from them, "Hey uh Belisarius, I think I see something there, looks like a bunch of enemy Alpha Victors pulled up on our guy's safe house." Charlie pointed Belisarius's attention to a rather concerning development. He and Arminius noticed a pair of enemy armored cars were in front of the apartment complex. "Not good, Arminius assumes combat mode. Whatever they're here for, we can't let them kill our informant."

"Move up and take that corner, keep your eyes open." Arminius gestured to his three robot teammates, the robot anthro wolves nodded to him and quickly sprinted for a short distance towards the corner and stacked up. Arminius took position on the edge of the corner to peek out and observe for them.

"Three tangos on a firewatch. Looks like the gunner is operating remotely" He noted, with his HUD marking the sighted enemies with red diamond symbols while the enemy armored car was marked with a red square. This intel was then synchronized to the other robots with Earl stacking on the tail end of the fireteam being able to see the enemy as well.

Belisarius seeing this had his Fireteam moved up by a stone wall and took up firing positions aiming at the enemies. Once they were all ready, the robots pulled their trigger in short bursts, dropping the enemies that were patrolling outside. The enemy armor car swung its turret over to their direction and opened fire its .50 cal M2 Browning at them. As their cover began to chip away, the robots displaced and repositioned themselves to perform a pincer attack.

"Grenadier, send them a gift. Express." Arminius ordered, and his grenadier robot quickly skirted forward and crouched down taking aim with the M320A1 Grenade Launcher. He fired a 40mm HEDP round at the armor car, the round damaged the vehicle's engine block and set fire to the fuel and engine inside. "Damn it, dismount! This thing's gonna blow." The crew hastily hopped out using the back door of the armored car only to have Belisarius and his fireteam cut them down just as they were dismounting.

"Alright keep moving, Arminius, breach and clear the apartment." Belisarius ordered his mate, only to see that an enemy fighter was violently thrown flying out of the window and crashed into the ground with a loud splat. "Uh I didn't do that." Charlie remarked stunted before another being beaten flying through the wall of the apartment blocks and crashing into the other flats across the street. "Anubis neglect to mention something it seems." Arminius remarked in awe before sweeping into the building with Belisarius. They went up to the Safehouse and found their Informant to be none other than Alexios, the Eagle of Zeus.

He appeared to be rather mechanical this time around, roboticized head to talons with jet black metal armor plates, red highlight panels and synthetic metal feathers on his wings and under the armor plates. Not only that but like the K-9 bots, he appeared to have a tight and bulgy crotch plate and thick muscular thighs for the holster compartment. "Did I steal your kill?" He asked sarcastically to the wolves, sounding like a playful boisterous bruiser. "No, you sure as hell make our job a lot easier though. Never seen you before pretty boy." Earl remarked with a chuckle looking at Alexios's body.

The Eagle of Zeus rolled his eyes and huffed out at Earl, letting the snarky remark slide before looking at Belisarius. "You guys my extraction team? Well, take this first, detailed map I got of the enemy AAA battery." Alexios handed them a tablet he had on the table of his Safehouse, showing them a detailed 3D map of the AAA battery.

The radar appeared to be located on the rooftop of a shopping mall while the missiles were on the ground, by a parking lot with each launcher sporting three missiles ready to ground any incoming airplanes coming close. "Well that seems a problem to you. Care to join us?" Belisarius suggested, to which Alexios nodded with a grin on his beak. "Why not? For the champion of Anubis, this one's for free." said Alexios as he led them out of the apartment block and out to the streets below.

Their firefight from earlier had no doubt attracted the attention of nearby patrol and numerous enemies were now going out on patrol to root out the intruder. Security was amping up and the enemy motorized patrols on the streets were cruising about. Trucks laden with troops, 4x4s with machine guns or auto grenade launchers rotating around slowly to conduct thermal scans analyzing the place for threats.

Arminius and Earl were taking point and moved in closer on the parking lot with the other wolves taking cover behind cars and dark shades to prevent their enemies from seeing them too early. As Belisarius followed up, he was passing the streets when suddenly one of the enemy patrols on the rooftop caught sight of him. The dark silhouette reacted with his hands raising his weapon and took aim at Belisarius and pulled the trigger.

A hail of bullets exited his weapon's barrel and struck Belisarius, the bullets struck Belisarius and bounced off his armor with metal sparks flew off here and there. Belisarius grunted slightly when his brains received pain sensations from his armor plates. He slid behind a concrete barricade and poke his head up and fired his weapon at his enemies. His fellow robots began to engage with their enemies firing from their fortifications and machine gun nests.

"So much for the element of surprise. Oh well might as well roll with it." Earl remarked as he then sprinted out from behind a car towards the nearby concrete barricade and ducked down. He then tossed out a frag grenade behind the sandbag position. The machine gunners there were alarmed by the frag grenade and ran away, but the detonation blew off their limbs and spilled blood around the place. "First strong point clear, one remaining. Squad put suppressing fire on that position!" Belisarius barked out orders as he perked his head up and fired at the last machine gun nest.

His fellow robots and Charlie beamline from cover to cover while having their teammates firing bursts at the sandbags. The machine gun crew eventually seeing that they were being flanked and potentially overrun, decided to break combat and run. As they were fleeing the combat, the robots took potshots and killed them one by one. But the enemies were now rattled and they were mobilizing more troops to the fight and suppress the infiltration force. "Earl Lupis, can you reprogram the radar array?" Belisarius asked as he led Earl with him towards the wall of the shopping mall before power jumping to the rooftop. Earl followed closely as he power jumped to the rooftop where they found the radar array being a parabor dish mounted on a wheeled trailer.

"I think I can do that. Was a radar operator on an EA-6B Prowler, this should be a piece o'cake." Earl remarked with an easy going attitude as he dismantled the hatch shielding the component interface. His left palm opened up its port in the center and out came a wire attached to a USB port of the radar, his HUD displayed the Radar programming as he began to change its IFF recognition. "Prowler? What type of aircraft was that?" Belisarius asked, with a moment of mental inquisitiveness, his HUD began to stream to him photos of the airplane with schematics and tech specs. "An electronic warfare aircraft?" He uttered in surprise.

"Yeahp. I was the Wizard on that old gal, Electronic Warfare Officer, sure radar on that thing is different from this one in model, but as long as their functionality remains the same. I can still finger it like nobody's business." Earl chuckled playfully while Belisarius cringed a bit at Earl's rather risque laced comment.

"Anubis, this is Earl, we got the radar hacked and it's ours to play now. Bring in the cav and we'll take this joint." Said Earl on the radio while muffled and crackled gunshots can be heard in the background. "Agh shit! Just get the tanks here quick, these bastards are getting really angsty!" Earl grumbled on the radio as he returned fire on the Vipers hiding inside nearby buildings around the shopping mall. "Helps on the way." Anubis remarked tersely and tapped on the hologram display of Horus and a force of tanks aboard the Leviathan and then tapped on the parking lot of the shopping mall.

"Alright, getting them there now, hang on boys!" Horus stated boastfully as he sent up a ghostly apparition of himself flying inland while the aura of his teleportation ability spread to cover the crewed and ready vehicles. His apparition found the landing zone to be cherried, the enemies were pounding the shopping mall with machine gun nests and mortars around the building while the robots like Belisarius, Earl, Arminius and Charlie were hiding inside to shelter their meager unit from incoming constant barrage.

"Need a hand? Make that four." Horus remarked on the radio cockily as he landed on the spot, with a platoon of tanks teleported into the area surprising the enemies, the turrets quickly zeroed in on entrenched enemy emplacements and fired off their shells, blowing through fortifications and structures. Bits and pieces of buildings were blown off leaving gaping holes and massive structural damages. At that same time, Alexios dive bombed into enemy fighters clustered for flanking attacks around the shopping mall and engaged in close combat with them using his blade and thunder and lighting power.

To back up the forces already there, VTOLs and captured helicopters from their heist were used to ferry in massive amounts of troops and air support into the fight, mechanized infantry began to sweep and clear the city block by block with autocannon support from their IFVs. Gunships circled above, prowling the streets below for targets as they blew through enemy infantry and vehicles. "Looks like they had enough, good work everyone, take a knee and catch your breath." Belisarius ordered his units while they watched with relief the battle had turned their way against the enemies.

In the air, the Scribe and Crow circled around as robot birds surveying the battlefield. They saw the Vipers were assisted by the local IDF garrison, no doubt these troops were coerced into either supporting or fighting for their overlords. "What do you think Scribe? Perhaps we should shake things up for them." The Crow asked crooning in a seductive manner, to which the Scribe nodded and morphed into his usual form followed by the Crow. "Indeed, let's send them to the loony bin."

The Crow then used his robot body's targeting software and image intensification to lock on a howitzer mounted on a truck platform, he then used his Searing Pain ability to fire a powerful charged up shot from his chest. The blast appeared to be a dark energy beam with black as night shades and tinges of purple with crackling electric bolts around it. The blast struck home the artillery piece and blew up the gun along with the truck and ammo nearby.

"Don't leave me out of this my love." The Scribe grinned and began to charge up his own shot but he was more up close and personal, he landed by a firebase of the IDF and Vipers were using, he summoned his Hieroglyph Assault and its holographic wall to amplify their effects and fired his hieroglyphs into the base, tearing through walls, sandbags and people alike. The two Abyssals were quick to clean house the rear line, leaving a trail of madness, bewildered and horrified and shell shocked soldiers in their wake.

Anubis watched from his command post on the Tartarus and saw the battle pushing inward, block by block falling to the robots without a fight, the Vipers were fleeing and had no intentions to fight back while at the same time, their rear line was disrupted causing widespread confusions leaving them with little choices but to either surrender, or die trying to escape.

XXXX

15 minutes later…

Ascalon was theirs, the first Israeli city has fallen to the Jackal Guards and their solid base has been established. With the Tartarus now mooring by the Marinas of the city offloading supplies via barges and helicopters, the robots were now going about collecting the dead of the enemies and their own.

For Belisarius's part, he and his squad were now resting at a local hotel converted to their makeshift barracks, they saw lines of surrendered IDF troops being marched by the robots to their confinement. All of whom had handcuffs on their wrists with a pair of robots leading them.

Once he was at the hotel Regina, he was surprised to find Anubis visiting him, "Hey, how are you doing majesty?" Anubis asked in a more friendly manner to Belisarius as he sat down next to the robot wolf who was resting on a sofa in the hotel lobby. "Well… how should I begin? Mixed. On one hand I did an admirable performance but I still feel… odd. Like something in my mind tells me what to do. But it wasn't my instinct or my own thoughts." Said Belisarius as he sighed out and leaned back gently, mindful not to break the sofa with his own weight. "May I be of use in this matter?" The Crow asked as he levitated in with the Scribe returning from their fun of spreading fear and madness amongst their enemies.

The Crow took notice after their arrival at the hotel. He felt discomfort from Belisarius and confusion. Meanwhile the Scribe looked over with a more blunt expression of impatience. Ready to reveal what Belisarius had on his mind. "Ahhh something seems to be bothering him about his current robotic state. Seemingly two people running one body." the Scribe spoke.

"Scribe I don't think he wished for this to be revealed." The Crow scowled.

"If I hadn't he'd have not shared it with us himself." the Scribe spoke out blunty.

Belisarius though brought his meaty hands over his face sighing out an annoyed gruff groan. "Your omnipresent mind needs to stay to itself. I've been unnerved by how fast my thought process has been. As if someone thinks and I act, two separate beings if you will." Belisarius grumbled. He didn't feel satisfied by his response. Like none of it was as he really felt. For him it was hard to explain.

Anubis hearing this from Belisarius made a hum in thought he was apparently aware of the exact cause of the problem, the Jackal deity then spoke to Belisarius and stood up to lead him. "I know the root cause of your problem. In fact I can show it to you Belisarius, Lenox." Said Anubis to Belisarius, this began to peak his interest as he slowly turned his head over to Anubis curiously.

"What is it that's causing this problem to me? I need to know Anubis, I mean, lord Anubis. Otherwise I fear I might be driven insane." Said Belisarius in a concern tone, it sounded somewhat close to being hysterical, he soon felt Anubis lifting him up gently.

The robot jackal held Belisarius's waist up in one hand before leading him out to the streets below. There Belisarius saw an HEMTT truck that the Jackal Guards seem to have repurposed and modified, it was like an RV with expandable sections of the truck's bed on either sides, the inside of the truck was highly spacious with four sets of chairs for the robots to rest on and cables to plug into the port on the back of their head for diagnostic. Attending the equipment there was Leandros who was setting up the monitors.

"Take a seat Belisarius, we'll show you the root of your concern soon. And fear not, it won't hurt you in the long run. Not at all." Said Anubis as he directed Belisarius to a metal chair where Belisarius can sit down, once he did the cable quickly plugged into the outlet port on the back of his head sending static electricity pulse into his head as he rested his head down.

He felt his mind drifting away from his body almost like a deep sleep as he felt his consciousness being dragged into the strange and surreal realm of Virtual Reality cyberspace. There, he saw the sight of his family Villa on the outskirts of Ariminium.

A familiar and comforting sight with the crops around being tended by farmers they hired, the slaves were going about doing the house works and chores and as he came inside, he found the Villa to be in perfect condition almost as if it was waiting for him to return to it. A courtyard in the middle with a large rectangular pond with the statue of Jupiter in the middle.

But he felt off, he wasn't alone, the entities around him were simulated that much he would know, but he felt that someone else, a more comprehensive entity was around the place waiting for him. And that entity was seen coming out to him from the Vila's Study.

It appeared to be identical to him in appearance, an anthro robot wolf with tanky muscle like him. "Subject identified: Emperor Marcus Lenox of the Roman Empire. Inhabitant of CLU-I 01172 chassis." The robot stated to Lenox in a dry tone. It didn't appear to be hostile to him but rather docile and waiting for him to ask it anything.

The much less intimidating robot projected in front of Belisarius didn't seem to answer much of his question just by appearance alone. "What was it?" was the question Belisarius asked himself. Though after a moment he could figure out what this was. "Allow me to take a venture. You're the second thing inside of me? But what are you?" Belisarius asked.

"Correction to your hypothesis. I am the AI that assists you piloting this body and guides your computation of threat assessment and tactical efficiency. In turn, I learn from your experience in order to further my own knowledge should the need for me to become active arise." The AI stated to Belisarius as it remained still as a statue in front of him it didn't seem to be threatening and apparently it managed to answer some of Belisarius's questions but there were still some questions bred from the answer regarding the exact meaning of "Becoming active".

"Becoming active? What do you mean by that?" He asked in perplexity as Belisarius cocked his head to the side gently. "Elaboration: currently I am in passive learning mode, my function in this mode is limited to simply assisting you, the Ghost in the Shell. And I am to assist you in perfecting your performance in combat constantly. If I am switched to Active I can assume autopilot and control of this body using your experience to mimic you. This is not recommended however as two active entities controlling one robot body might come into conflict with one another." The AI exposited to Belisarius as it stood there waiting for him to ask any further as if it was an encyclopedia.

This warning raised caution in Belisarius as he made a grunt of shock. "Wait. You just gave me information I could at one point lose control of the body I'm in due to you going rogue? Or at the very least dominating this body." Belisarius said in concern.

"Negative." The AI replied tersely as it took a step closer to him, its avatar was now mere inches away from him as it stood arms crossed before its chest. "In order for me to take control I require the explicit authorization from you and a senior commanding officer such as Unit Leandros or Supreme Commander Anubis. To make the process easier you must be absent from this so as not to cause conflict in control. In short, your consent first." The AI stated to Belisarius sternly, mimicking his own voice to a teat with a tone that captured his spirit authentically but he could tell that this AI was still a long way from perfectly replicating him, or perhaps growing into its own entity.

To this Belisarius made a stern frown. "I feel I am being mocked partly. By myself. Not a perfect replication. But… Getting there." He cleared his throat out and grumbled while circling his neck around. "Then I suppose I have to get used to you then. Just try not to do anything that will raise my alarm so we can create a symbiotic seamless relationship. I'll have to use my skill building up to sync with you." Beliarius stated.

The AI nodded to him, "Affirmative, symbiotic relationship. Will comply with your request, merging of our entities will take time but my projections show it is possible with some middle ground. Starting with this body and Arminius." The AI replied to him as it began to tap his shoulder, this caused it to fizzle away, growing increasingly transparent before merging into Belisarius's own avatar into one entity.

"I will now lay dormant in you until further notice, my function remains and if you require, you may connect to the VR server to consult with me." The AI instructed Belisarius gently before he felt his limbs once again, the VR world disappeared before his eyes as his optics flashed online again with the HUD elements booted up slowly. He saw Leandros and Anubis standing before him patiently. "How did it go Belisarius?" Anubis asked.

Belisarius stood himself up grunting. He watched his movements though. They all felt like he kept his watch. Keeping his eyes shifting up and down his arms, and legs. He was still having issues trusting the other part of him. "Interesting, but I still have some caution about this… I wasn't aware I would be enhanced with another mind to share in one body. At the very least he… I seem to be agreeable." Belisarius said. He tried as he could to find a positive side to it.

Anubis nodded to him and hugged Belisarius into him tenderly, patting his back to comfort him and assure him. "Not to worry about it, as I would say. The AI is there to help you, I'm sure you two could come to an agreement with one another. For now…" Anubis looked down at Belisarius's body and noted with him the scratches and dents on his armor. "Let's get you cleaned shall we?" The Jackal God then led Belisarius out of the truck to a cleaning bay inside the Tartarus for him to have his cleaning done.

Onboard the ship, Belisarius and Arminius were put into a cleaning area where they received their camouflage colors, the water there blasted over them, cleaning off dust and grimes from their body before the two were given their waxing and polishing with their camouflage color being restored to its fullest and their armor seem to glisten once again. "Refreshing, it's like one of our Roman bathhouses back in the days." Arminius commented.

He glanced over to Belisarius noting the quiet attitude of Belisarius caused him to grow concerned. "Is something wrong?" He asked curiously, hearing this caused Belisarius shook his head and sighed out. "I would be lying if I tell you that nothing's wrong. You see… I was plugged into a strange realm where my childhood home was simulated, I met the thing that was influencing my actions, a second mind to enhance my own but one that is mimicking me to a teat." Said Belisarius with a concerned tone, his sighing was much more audible than before as Arminius listened in.

"I see… a second mind inhabiting your body beside you? That is… the strange development there, so what did you do to it? Or what did it do to you?" He asked Belisarius again as the two sat down by a bench to ponder in thoughts.

"I was curious about its purpose and existence, so many questions but so little time to find answers. So I figured a symbiotic relationship, for now it lays dormant inside my mind and helps me with my judgments in combat." Belisarius tapped his arms with his index fingers and looked up the ceiling feeling an odd sense of schizophrenia in a mild manner rushing over his mind. "If I ever need to consult with it again, I can connect into the VR realm again, perhaps we can meet it like a separate entity only it speaks with my voice and mimics my mind. Strange." Belisarius finished.

Hearing this got Arminius to stroke his chin thinking on the matters, he found it to be rather intriguing but also rather disturbing for him, almost like madness and the multiple personality disorder some eccentric emperors and persons may have. "That is curious to me. Perhaps next time you should bring me along just in case, for now though let us rest until the next deployment." Arminius suggested to Belisarius before standing up, Belisarius nodded to Arminius and stood up with him following his old time friend to the recharge pads for them in the workshop. "Indeed, you did well out there Arminius, maybe when we can let's invite the fancy Earl Lupis over for a good time."

Once the two stepped on the pads, they saw a cable surging up from the floor of the pad latching into their tail hole, causing the two to yelp out in ecstasy and pleasure. This would then be followed by cables latching up their port outlet to synchronize their combat data into a larger database for reviews.

Throughout the process, Belisarius and Arminius saw various statistics being reviewed, hit percentages, kill counts specific down to the decimals, tactical efficiency and command efficiency and so on. The myriads of information and statistics seem to remind them how warfare these days seems to have changed to become more computerized and they were the building blocks for the future of infantry forces.

What the scoreboard displayed was unnerving to Belisarius though. Even in Rome he was never displayed a tally of those who died. Every death came with a consequence, and here it was displayed like a game to him. As if this were sport. He sighed though expecting this. It definitely felt more computerized with data storage. "The one good thing I enjoy out of this is it proves we are efficient. Crack troops of a well oiled machine. Interesting though. I wasn't expecting the numbers to tally so high." Belisarius said.

"Neither do I, but goodness sake, this renders the work of a Scribe and record keeper in a Legion moot." Arminius stated in a bit of awe seeing his own score tally, showing that he managed to slay around 25 enemies throughout the battle with his weapon firing in burst at their chests whenever he saw them.

Once their data has been uploaded and stored, the cables detached from their ports and tail hole, leaving them to sooth the slight aches before exiting the workshop. "So Belisarius, how about we go meet Earl Lupis? We didn't have time to exactly… well… thank him for his stunning air support in the Sina." Arminius asked invitingly to Belisarius as the two were in the elevator riding up to the higher level of the ship.

Belisarius placed his arms behind his back then and waited for the elevator to slide to the lower floors. "Agreed. I could benefit with peace, and agreeability. Perhaps we will make a stronger relationship with this Earl." Belisarius said.

Once the two were in the cabin quarter of the ship, Arminius and Belisarius went out to Earl's cabin with Arminius bringing with him a bottle of fine wine, Bacchus 270 B.C Roma Invicta. Once the two were at Earl's cabin, Arminius knocked on the door gently and waited for Earl to come and open the door to meet them.

Earl in the cabin though was watching the TV included in the room. His face though told of him being still unnerved by the furless humans of this world. He still cringed to their alien looks still getting used to them. When he heard the knocking on the door, Earl turned his head over to it and went out to open the door, wondering who could it be in his head. "Oh hey it's you two again, nice to see ya still kicking anything but the damn bucket." Earl said with a charming laugh being relieved to see Arminius and Belisarius.

"The feeling's mutual Earl Lupis, we have something here from Rome for you." Arminius handed to Earl the fancy glass bottle of Roman grape wine, the light tan and grey robot wolf saw the bottle with an impressive Roman depiction of what appeared to be a grape farm toil by the farmers with their cattles to produce countless batches of grapes to be grinded and fermented in Alcohol into wines for consumption.

Belisarius with his arms still behind his back nodded in agreement. "Yes. We would be interested in you joining us tonight while the atmosphere is still peaceful. And while Viper's temper is temporarily quelled. Would you join?" Belisarius asked.

Earl still looked down at a very legitimate bottle of wine as old as it was puffed astonished. "Pffft. Shoot. Never had a thousand year old wine before. I gotta share that with you. Alright I'll join. Just get my mind off of these weird humans. Whatever they are called. " Earl said gladly. He walked out of the room, but held the bottle of wine hugged in his arms in some type of protective way.

"We're glad that you are with us Mr. Lupis, I must say that you are quite a charming and attractive one." Said Arminius with a cheeky grin on his face as he wrapped his right arm around Earl's waist and rested it on his abdomen. "Perhaps someday… we might have a little fun with each other on bed, you, me, Belisarius." He quipped whimsically.


	9. Chapter 9: Trauma

Chapter 9: Trauma

Negev desert, the foothills of Mt. Sinai…

The feeling of being haunted and stalked continued to manifest itself in Jr's mind and his cohorts, though they have yet to be ambushed by anything that resembled a supernatural monster, he still felt that something was watching him.

Around him, Jr saw a large flat desert with the wind blowing the sands into millions of flying daggers going from one dune to the next. Behind him were the rocky formations, ravines, and peaks of Mt Sinai. He still heard however a whisper in the wind, a language so ancient and alien to him that the sounds were unrecognizable. "Come forth to face thee, thy name eternal. Thy deeds of swords and bows, thou shalt not relinquish thy memories."

The voice called out in the wind, but the words of said language elude Jr's head remaining cryptic to him but it helped drive the fear into him and his cohorts minds. Occasionally, Rodan and Anguirus would see the silhouette of what appeared to be an anthropomorphic canid creature with a grey fur on its body.

It walked on the desert before disappearing behind a rock formation, only to have Jr and his crew stumbling across the remains of an ancient battle where corpses lay across the land, chariots, horses and arrows strewn across the battlefield with the flags of Egypt and the Canaanite rebels scattered everywhere. But after glimpsing at those, the battlefield was gone, like the mirage of the desert itself. Just a memory or was it?

Jr shook his head out and snarled. The Fear he had within made him want to leave, and not deal with this. Not now. He rose foot off of the ground and flung it down in a stomp. From his mouth came a loud guttural growl. A partial bit of his godzillain voice, and a final pitch of his roar. It helped him bolster himself. Though with no seeming threat.

"There's something weird out here. I can't tell what it wants guys. Besides showing us cryptic stuff. Probably replays of the past. Residual energy stuff. " Jr said squinting. He knew it was something paranormal, but to what level? How intense was the specter?

"I don't know. Maybe it's messin' with us. Toying with us. Or nah. Guarding something. I felt a bit of a spook. Hell I still feel pretty weirded by this. I saw a giant two legged wolf. All shadowed like a silhouette. It spoke though. Much like the chosen did in that accent." Anguirus said.

Rodan for one looked around more skittish and scared. He moved closer to the other two looking around with his beak chittering. "Ahhh I don't know if. If it doesn't want us here we can just leave you know. Yeah lets do that!"

Rodan squealed.

"No. We saw worse than this. This isn't like the cursed. This is warning us with a less intense haunt." Jr stated as he moved his right leg forwards. Part of him knew deep down this could very well go wrong, and more intense.

Beyond the horizon of jagged rocky formations and ravines, Jr could sense something was happening, something that was most foul indeed. His primal Godzillian instincts told him that there were valuables nearby, radiation that was emanating from the nearby valley. Rodan and Angy could see a paved road snaking through the desert terrains, no doubt built by humans heading somewhere, a settlement perhaps?

Jr held up his hands to the other to. "What's the matter? I can feel it too." Anguirus said. He as well looked where Jr had his eyes set on. The feeling of radiation tingling at their scaley bodies.

Jr however shook his head still feeling something was wrong. "That's what they probably want us to feel." Jr stated to Anguirus in a suspicious tone.

"Ah. An ambush. I still say I come along. Older and I can think through this if they are." Anguirus said to Jr. The recommendation didn't go across Jr's head too well though as he kept a stern glare. True Anguirus was much older. An uncle practically. "I don't think your dad would want you to go out there alone. Or the rest of the family." Anguirus repeated.

"No I got this. Just stay here. If two of you hang back you can rush them in case something goes wrong with me. You both go with me they'll be all over the three of us. No one to back us up except Anubis's guys. Oh and Rodan. Anything worse goes wrong you fly to them and then get them here." Jr said. He pushed his way through the rocky terrain grunting and huffing out as he stomped across the landscape.

Rodan saluted Jr bringing his wrist to his head bending the full of his wing up to his forehead as he watched Jr climb over the terrain. "I got you man. Fuck em up!" Rodan stated.

With his height and massive ground coverage ability, Jr would soon come across the sight of a Nuclear Storage base of the humans. The paved road criss crossed across the desert and ravines before arriving at the base's entrance where he saw rows and rows of trucks that were lined up with nuclear warheads being loaded on their truck bed.

The base itself appeared to have been taken over by a hostile force, all of whom dressed in pixelated digital desert camouflage with arachnid like goggles mounted on their helmets. The troops were mostly armed with high tech bullpup assault rifles with presumably grenade launcher attachments under their barrels and rectangular electronic IR scopes.

The human workers and conventional IDF troops there were lined up by the walls of the base, where firing squads were seen gunning them down. Jr could see that there were other men driving forklifts putting Nuclear Warheads into the trucks while other HAZMAT suits specialists were locking the truck bed and knocked on the back three times.

"Go go go! We're packing up boys, torch everything and let's move before those hounds catch up." The officer shouted to his men as they then mounted on various vehicles they arrived with ranging from FAVs to APCs and IFVs before they began to run away from the place.

Jr saw his targets. They already saw him as well. There was no way they missed him lumbering over the mountains. He made a low growl seeing his tiny enemy. They were numerous, but not well equipped for his nearly indestructible godzillian form. He stormed forwards making a much louder guttural growl as he crushed roads beneath his feet on his way to intercept the warheads.

"Damn that gravehound Anubis! He sic his overgrown lizard on us! The motherfucker, these tit fuckers aren't even trained to handle this shit!" One of the Vipers operatives cursed as he sat in the nuclear truck running across the desert from Jr. His escorts were firing wildly at Jr with their weapons only to see their ammo pelt and bounced off harmlessly.

In return, Jr's footsteps however easily crushed anything directly beneath him, shockwaves and quakes threw off FAVs and vehicles near him around like toys. Viper troops were tossed out like dolls and ants before being squished into bloody messes on the ground.

His atomic breath was equally terrifying to them as their vehicles were blown off to bits without mercy. The trucks would then scatter off into the desert to avoid him and minimize their casualties, "Code Thunder! Code Thunder! I repeat Code Thunder. We got the overgrown lizard on our asses, we need Lilith to cover our asses now." The commanding officer ordered on the radio network, he heard a feminine monotonous but sarcastic voice snark at him. "Perhaps you should donate some of your body parts for experiments after this. The most endowed parts that is."

Jr however would hear a deathly roar, a familiar one that sent fear crawling up his spine and the cold chilling grasp of Thanatos gripping him in place. He heard the rhythm like a dinosaur but it sounded mechanical and synthetic unlike a real vocal chord. Regardless, he knew that this was trouble, and true enough trouble came knocking when the nearby rock formations were knocked over and out came a shiny chrome metal mecha.

This war machine he saw had a bony like aesthetic on its exterior with a sleek and streamlined snout with fibers for hairs or feathers on its head and back. The bipedal motion and triple claws arms of the mecha dinosaur brought to mind his fear and trauma from the past. The robot was now charging at Jr with its blood red eyes aimed at him and its titanium mouth opened wide seemingly to bite him off.

As it was charging towards Jr he couldn't seem to move. Instead his terrified eyes were locked on its body. Or her body as he remembered it. It wasn't an ordinary kaiju. Not the ones who have tried to brutalize him, or have lead to his death, but one that did something much more perverse.

The beast ran him down toppling him to his back his dorsal plates either bent at the base of his back or dug straight into the ground. THere she was on top of Jr as he released his terrified words. "OH SHIT! NO NOT YOU! NOT YOU AGAIN! THEY KILLED YOU AND THE REST OF THEM!" As he shouted his vision blurred and flashed.

Flashed to a long time ago in the past. Him in a lush jungle setting. Running through another highly expansive on the hunt for something. In his memory he envisioned a large clearing field with grass and paths of exposed ancient stone.

He stopped in his vision listen to the world around him. His focus set on some trees nearby in front of himself. He charged up his atomic breath getting mad and engraved.

That was his mistake though in the past. His focus dead set on the wrong object. Another former beast creed into his right side telling him to the ground. His atomic breath firing form his mouth up into the air as he fell to his left side blindsided and completely dazed.

His vision flashed again to the present. This new almost identical beat on top of him again. "WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT FROM ME!? You took my essence! You got yourself knocked up! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT MY LIFE?!" Jr shouted. He could feel his manhood at state again as his memory stung him deeply. The dreadful feeling of being viciously molested, raped. Like his memories told him.

The monster snapped at him biting at his left arm before pushing in at him and yanked his left arm. Jr would then feel the mecha I-Rex moved to hit him with a tail slap on his back, the painful sting tossed another moment into his mind, the way he fell when he was ambushed in the lush jungle, it triggered his impulse not to let it happen again and rolled on the ground. He and his foe were now circling one another prowling for a weak spot to dive in and exploit.

Then he saw the mecha I-Rex opened its mouth and fired off an intense beam of red laser at him, it made him fired off his atomic breath to resist the beam on instincts. The two beams collided and clashed with each other with the mecha I-Rex's beam trying to push forward at his atomic breath while Jr's blue atomic breath was much more powerful naturally, pushing the red laser beam back. On the back of the Mecha I-Rex, its missile module flipped opened up and fired top attack missiles similar to an MFS missile pack and the missiles slammed down on Jr's head and back exploding violently.

It then proceeded to make several power slides and zig zag towards Jr, it pummeled into his chest and threw him on his back and roared at him, maximizing the sound output to maximum to keep him dazed. "We've regrouped at the rally point you can stop now. Just get out of there, there's no point in fighting that thing." The Mecha I-Rex was seen lowering itself as if it was sighing out of disappointment before turning around and walked away from Jr, not before glancing back at him and smirked, "See you around, handsome." It then ran off into the distant horizon, leaving Jr with his wounds.

The final taunt sent Jr back again to that lush place. Back then on his back with the old flesh I-Rex straddling him. Biting his neck. Lowering her realty mass over his body.

Before he knew what was happening it already had eluded his body by force using her female hormones to cause Jr's body to be poised for her own carnal instinctual ritual. Jr looked up at her feeling his body warmth. Sick. He was already well wed with a different partner. Expecting as well a full clutch of his own to share with his real love.

Not this insane sadist of a beast. Too late though. She placed her rear down on top of his groin. He couldn't tell what she had for a sexual organ, but it wasn't the one he should have been in. The memory stuck hard sending him into a state of fear driven paralysis.

Being used back then for a task he wanted no part in. Reproduction. Meaning part of the offspring would be form him. His own blood. A guilt he still to this days bears. Children that could have been raised by a horrific beast. To do who knows what.

And now as he lay thinking on his memories he snapped his gaze to Anguirus and Rodan shouting at him, but not making a sound as the terror of the memories, the forced sexual contact, the use for kids he didn't want, but the need to protect them. He was hoisted up by Rodan.

"Kid! Kid! KID! Man he looks messed up! What did they send after him Rody?!" Anguirus shouted. Rodna in turn gently placed Jr on Anguirus's back spikes. Just enough to where he would feel their prickly pointy touch, but not be in turn stabbed by them.

"Fucked if I know maybe! All i heard was RAWAARW. And then AHHHH. And then NO! NO! NO MORE! And then it got real quiet and now we are here. I don't wanna stay here to see what do this to him! Fuckign lets go before we are the ones screaming out of our minds!" Rodan shouted.

[hr]

Ascalon, at the time…

By now Ra has risen on the back of Khepri to lit the world and bask all in his divine light, warmth and rays of gold illumination shine over all protecting others from the darkness and cold of the Afterlife and assure them that another day has come and they were still living like the day before.

On the outskirt of Ascalon saw the invasion force of the Chimera pushing along the highways towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, behind them were massive convoys of trucks and VTOLs air lifting various cargoes in and out of the frontline. Accompanying them was a giant purple violet MFS unit with a slender feminine stature.

As she was marching with the convoys of human vehicles next to her, she noticed how one of the supply convoy broke off heading west towards Ascalon.

"Hera this is Overlord, we need you to escort the convoy towards Ascalon there's an important delivery we need to make. Be advised one of our VIP is onboard the convoy heading into town, how copy over?" Said the voice of Brigadier General Jason Grady on the coms to Hera as the vehicles broke off.

Hera scanned her eyes over the convoy and zoomed in on the vehicle holding the VIP. She nodded and made brisk strides crossing over the desert with an athletic walk. "On it now. Escorting them." Hera said tersely.

As they head into Ascalon, the convoy began to encounter the robot Jackals and Wolves standing guard on the outer edge of town, the first checkpoint was manned by a squad of 8 robots with a pair of Hecatonchires robots standing guard on the rooftops, of nearby buildings providing overwatch on the convoy.

They saw the black Orion SUV with heavily tinted windshield and windows and were quick to inspect the vehicle for any traces of hostility. The driver of the SUV saw that the first robot to come and inspect him was a robot with a crimson red chrome color.

The head had a pair of pointy ears but these were shorter than Jackals or wolves ears, not only that but the face appeared to be a rather strange and demonic like head. Inside the SUV, Wallace Barringer saw that the robot was walking on the towards the mid section of the truck and stood there, the windshield seems to automatically lower itself revealing his face to the Inquisitor.

"You've come with what was demanded. Good. Shows of good commitment there, but I can tell you're here for something of your own." Said the Inquisitor robot to Wallace in a deep baritone and a rather creepy guttural growl.

Wallace Baringer nodded to the robot and held his body back seeing the massive proportion of the machine. "I am. We'll discuss this in the meeting. It will be a more private conversation this way between you and Chimera." Barringer said.

"Let them through. The Supreme Commander will deal with them." Said the Inquisitor as he gestured the robots to open up the gates and let the convoy into town. The SUV and its escorts went along the streets of Ascalon towards the nearby occupied military fort while the other transports the cargoes to their designated drop off spots.

Barringer saw that his SUV stopped directly in front of Anubis standing in front of the command building module as if he had been aware of their exact parking position down to the nanometers.

When Wallace exited the SUV with his Orion bodyguards, accompanying them was Joe Marshall while Anubis had Belisarius and Arminius standing next to him as bodyguards. Behind Anubis was Leandros waiting for the humans to come.

"Nubian Gold, as promised." Leandros handed them a bundle of gold bars, pure gold by the look of them with the bars sporting the Egyptian coat of arms on it. The Hawk of Ra facing East while the Eagle of Zeus facing West with two avian talons holding a Sarissa spear.

Joe picked up the block of gold and let its shiny metal in his eyes. Knowing gold was a rather maleable element he pressed his thumb in it bending the surface. The valuable element after it had bent got Joe's approval. "This works well. Pure stuff." Joe said tossing it up and down.

"Yes well there was something else we wished to have in exchange. Its gathered me and the GDI's interests seeing that. One of the Rex Units is made up of this element. The one named Christine." Barringer had said.

"Very well then, if you wish… Belisarius." Anubis turned his head to the right and this made the digital silver and grey robot wolf nodded his head obediently to Anubis. "Yes sir?" He stood ready, his weapon was held pointing downward with the safety catch on.

"Accompany these mortals, see if you can provide what they desire, but no more than that." the Jackal Deity ordered him sternly, the robot wolf nodded his head to Anubis before stepping forward into the sunlight. "Consider it done, my lord." Said Belisarius before he turned to face Joe Marshall and Wallace Barringer and stepped up to them. Joe and Wallace once again heard Belisarius's voice sounding similar to the foreboding Mr. Grey.

Joe shuddered hearing Belisarius's booming voice and shook his head. "You sound so much-" Joe stopped himself from speaking further and made a more stern looking frown. He gestured for the Orion soldiers to follow him and Barringer.

Belisarius turned around, and spoke to Arminius then feeling weird about Joe's voice. "You get a sense for why it was crucial for us to hold our voices. I wish for this attraction to me end. Swiftly."

"Aye Belisarius, their fascination with us borders obsession." Said Arminius to Belisarius as he spoke though Joe would feel even more surreality crawling up his spine when he heard the voice of Arminius being identical to his own.

"You come for the blood in our mechanical veins, come inside first, where we may have privacy from Venus's prying eyes." Belisarius uttered to them with a dry quip, his dialect seems to have an ancient world charm to it. The robot wolves duo led Wallace Barringer and Joe into the nearby residential apartment building that the robots are apparently using as their stronghold.

As they climbed the stairs to the 4th floor, Belisarius's movements and body languages were recorded by Barringer's button camera mounted on his outfit disguised as a shirt button.

He noted how the robot's movements wasn't as stiff as he may have suspected before. The robot seems to walk naturally, it turns and swivels its body smoothly like humans do.

When they arrived in an empty apartment, Belisarius sat down on an armchair while offering his guests to sit down on the couch in front of him. "Please sit down, we have little to offer but welcome nonetheless as Jupiter would decree." Said Belisarius.

Joe sat himself down parallel to Belisarius nodding. The chair sunk down in response to his weight though while its back part leaned back in response to him. He rested his hands down on the desk looking to the pair of wolves. He still looked conflicted.

"Personally I would enjoy some more closure on the real identity to you two. But really the GDI and some council members were more curious about a fresh batch of the metal stuff. The liquid. Christine calls it nanites. Right from the source…" Joe said in grumbles.

"Yes the odd substance. They want an untampered supply of it to help us understand it more. They call it a more sophisticated batch of nanomachines. Personally I want a private study with it and how it reacts to various tests. Objects for example." Wallace said.

Belisarius who was facing Joe and Wallace directly in their faces let out a sigh looking at Joe in particular seeing that he was disturbed as anyone should be when hear the ghost of what they would consider a ghost. "To be or not to be that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer." Belisarius uttered the famous phrase as he faced Joe.

"You wish for closure like any man when he faces the ghost of his companion in another shell." He mused to Joe, his voice once again conjure Mr. Grey to mind as if Joe's optical equipment somehow could not discern illusion from solid material it was as if he saw Grey before him, a ghostly apparition but looking smaller, like a normal man but in white toga and a wreath on his head.

Joe gasped, but felt this was only what he was seeing. He shook his head, and rubbed his eyes to make the confusing image go away. "No...Stop. don't-" he grunted as he lifted his eyes back up to Belisarius. "That was him. I just…" Joe stopped again staring. "Alright let's just have the sample.. Dammit…" Joe stammered.

Belisarius nodded to Joe and sighed out in sympathy towards him, the robot wolf reached down to his crotch plate and gently sent a mental control pulse down to the armor plate there.

The hissing of airlock and the snappings of braces releasing their catches as he released the crotch plate revealing his own canid penis made from synthetic material, hanging underneath were a pair of robot wolf genitals. "I advise the use of alcohol to numb the pain, a clean syringe and caution. I have time for you to work your minds out." Said Belisarius while Arminius glanced away blushing under his stiff metal face.

Joe and Barringer seems to be the most shocked though after Belisarius had revealed his placid member. Joe immediately looked away, and only got a glimpse of its synthetic rubbery texture while Barringer only looked up to Belisarius with an appalled face. "You can't be serious. Are you want to extract it from you genitals? Possible pleasure, or using syringe?.." Barringer said.

"Please, be quick lest you risk more confusion to yourself." Said Belisarius with a sigh as he blushed under his metal cheeks before looking up at Joe noticing that he was disgusted by the sudden turn of event. "And for his sake, less questions asked now would be better." The robot wolf instructed, almost like pleading as Wallace saw that Arminius apparently was using alcohol and some painkiller to rub on Belisarius's genitals.

Once the agents were applied, Arminius took a syringe out of a medical equipment box on the nearby table and cleaned its tip. "This may sting a bit Belisarius." Said Arminius as he crouched down and gently pressed its sharp end into Beliarius's genital and begin to extract a syringe full of Nanites.

Once that was obtained he pulled the syringe out and filled up a glass jar full of Nanites. With the jar filled, he handed it to Joe and Wallace before helping Belisarius soothing the wound. "There, as you have wished. Perhaps you should take a moment to collect yourself.

Joe groaned out as he swished the jar full of nanites around. He kept his nose still having to breath out oof his mouth. He quickly passed the jar to one of the body guards there who became equally shocked and confused. "Wh- I don't- No!" the guard said in an awkward voice.

Barringer took off his gloves and huffed out. "You are very lucky I have gotten acquainted with operating on large godzillasaurus. Their anatomy is complex, and often it requires going into more intimate portions of their body to understand them, and ensure everything is working as should." Barringer said.

"I see… Well then, Joe Marshall correct? I am told by Anubis that you are… related to my descendant." Said Belisarius in a sentimental tone to Joe as he sighed out mechanically as he secured the crotch plate back into place. "I must forewarn you first however that… I am not his ancestor by blood, but I can say he is my incarnation of this realm. As I am his past incarnation and emperor of Rome." Belisarius stated to Joe and Wallace, completely dumbfounding them and the bodyguards in the process.

Joe though remained more stoic that the others and made a rather sad sigh. "So you aren't Lenox then? I was for a moment certain Anubis may have… You're not him." Joe brought his hand to his face and made a gravely sigh of disappointment before he could speak again. "We were much like brothers if you could believe that. He wasn't exactly a good man. But I respected him. I sorta wished he'd drop the whole idea of world peace, but… I knew he wouldn't let it up."

"You were? I can draw the parallel, Arminius and I are like that. I was once… Marcus Julius Lenox. Emperor of Rome. I was told by Anubis of the Lenox of this realm and how he is my incarnation in a more… foreboding light." Said Belisarius in a grim tone as he sighed out to Joe sympathetically, Arminius in turn chimed in as he spoke to Joe. "I was once Acmeus, Marcus Lenox's right hand in the Legion. Perhaps you are my incarnation of this realm."

"Am I hearing shit?" one of the Orion bodyguard muttered to his colleague in shock hearing this, the thought of their Mr. Grey being once an Ancient Roman empire that was never recorded in history made his mind raced from one madness to another to find rationality to this idea.

Joe nodded to the two of them. Though looking to Arminius he felt a piece of himself in him as he was explaining this. "Hard to understand, but I think i can grasp it. Some people believe in reincarnation. Not what this is. This is some type of alternate dimension alternate universe. Though more complex. And strange… I wouldn't have guessed in my life time i'd be here. But… i wasn't exacting deities and immortals and demons to be real. Belisarius you even have his last name. So. What was it you two did in your Rome? Unless it's completely the same as this world's." Joe said with his mind on a curious nature.

Belisarius stroke his chin as he sighed out to Joe, he began to explain in details the life of a Roman emperor that he was and his works to ensure the survival of the empire. In the process the conversation was taped for archive and research, the content seems to struck something to Joe and Wallace, a parallelism of the robot wolf's home world and their own.

"We started out as all other Romans the ones that are not slaves that is. Children in noble houses, a Vila of our family, a plot of farm lands to cultivate and grow crops with. Then we became Legionaires. Through our services we climbed the ranks but we saw the rotting of Rome that in our youth, we blissfully ignored. As Rome rotted, one man dragged the Republic down further, Brutus Septimius Crassus. He started a war we couldn't have won against the Greeks and the Egyptians. We did the best we could to save the flowers of Roman youths in that disaster, but when war came to our soils, the Plebeians rebelled. They spoke the tongue of fire and brimstones that the Demagogues like Crassus once spoke. They crowned me emperor and I have to salvage the Roman Empire with whatever I have left. Acmeus and I, we did the best we could and the Gods of Egypt, Anubis amongst them were lenient to us so we would not be foolish enough to start unreasonable conflicts again."

Oddly enough by what he had stated to Joe it seems there was some understanding there. Joe didn't remember Grey being the most well liked person on Earth. He wasn't virtuous like Belisarius. Instead Joe recalled Grey being both feared and hated.

This was odd news to him. "That's a surprise to me. You somehow repaired the damages of Rome with taking over by the sounds. Lenox attempted world take over through WMD and Rex unit combination. There' some differences at least. You didn't exploit the kaiju of wherever you live." Joe said.

"Pity he died brutally with a mired legacy." Belisarius finished contemplating the fate of Walter Lenox as he sat from across Joe. "Anubis told me you were not conceived by natural means, that I understand… There have been stranger things still from where I came from when one live with Gods." He then stood up from the armchair he was sitting and offered Joe and Wallace glasses of wine, Roman grape wine, poured from amphoras. "Enjoy yourself."

Joe took the wine glass and rolled he liquids in side around in a circle. He however nodded to Belisarius. He looked over to him having at least some closure on who he was and wasn't. It wasn't the answer he wanted, but an answer regardless. "Perhaps. You already have a high tech operation at hand. Though. I'm only making a rough guess the canine body is where you reside in." Joe said.

Belisarius looked back at his robot body and let out a soft smirk, it was strange for Joe, strange to see an incarnation of Grey smiling for the first time in some way even when he was in a robot body with sculpted and chiseled proportions. "Well… you can say… a Ghost in the Shell." He quipped before seeing Joe finished his own drink and depart with the Orion bodyguards elements.

Belisarius sighed out feeling sentimental seeing an undoubtedly troubled mortal leaving with bittersweet closure to his troubles, from the windows of the building, Belisarius looked down at Joe as he left with his men feeling that perhaps something should be done for them.

As night came on the town of Ascalon the fighting had mostly moved elsewhere with the town being firmly under the Jackal Guards's thumbs and by extension, Egypt's thumb. The troops were now on patrol around town, enforcing curfew and keep the civilians in line and safe in their homes.

It was full moon on that evening and for Belisarius, patrolling while using a robot wolf body made him feel somewhat awkward by this, sometimes he felt an odd instinct to howl using the robot's voice box like a wolf howling under the moonlight.

He was patrolling alone at the moment on the hilly areas outside of the town, with the stars above guiding him should his GPS and advanced navigation systems fail he felt somewhat at ease knowing that above him there would always be a drone keeping an eye out for infiltrators.

His optics were now in ENVG mode, an enhanced night vision mode that basked the world in a grey, black and white view like FLIR imaging. He can see well detailed parts of his body and the surrounding areas, which was rendered in 4K resolutions allowing him to pick out even the smallest detail on rocks and leaves.

As he was walking about however, his radar picked up something nearby, a single blip near his position to the northeast from the looks of it. It was strange, nothing was supposed to be here, nothing large enough to be picked up by radar that was.

He crouched and hunched forward keeping a low profile as he walked forward, his bullpup assault rifle in hands ready to squeeze the trigger to take out any Vipers he might come across.

As he slowly came up on a hilltop, his radar showed that the unknown was so much closer now, in fact they were only a handful of meters from each other, his concern rose to maximum as he aimed down his sight looking at the laser dot in front of the weapon before he noticed something, dorsal plates rising up from the ground.

As the dorsal plates rose up he saw a sleek feminine godzillian form appeared out of the ground. She shook herself off as she smiled at Belisarius. Hera apparently making use of the environment to her advantage to camouflage herself. It turns out for Belisarius his walk was not so alone. Hera made sure her armored presence was stalking him as he went on his patrol. "Hellooo wolfy. Or should I say Grey's distant ancient ancestor?" Hera asked as she grabbed one part of her hip in hand.

"Oh… so it was you, Hera isn't it? I was a bit jumpy when I thought you were... " He paused awkwardly before stroking the back of his metal head with his left hand while his rifle was being held in his right hand.

He however kept up his posture while looking at her, noticing her sassy personality expressed by her body language with her hand grabbing her hip.

"What brings you here, to me that is? And it seems that you may have utilized Anubis's magic dust to prevent collateral damages." Said Belisarius as he continued had his eyes on her chest and abdomen area before tracing it up to her face, which was by now mere inches away from him. Noticing this got him jerking his head back slightly and took half a step back away from her as she seem to have developed an interest in him. His body perhaps? He thought to himself.

"Yes I used his dust to keep my body weight down for the time. I could trim more weight off of the hips, but they help display my form better." She said moving her face closer to his while her grin was kept on her face. "I'm just curious about you. My former boss, if you could call him that, sounded a lot like you. Acted like you. Practically was you. Only a lot darker with his intents. And his actions. Perhaps I can talk to you tonight, and later add you to my collection of figures." Hera joked.

Belisarius hearing this let out a soft smirk and huffed at this flattered by her jester like personality as he switched his weapon to safe mode and mounted it on his back. "Well perhaps an evening stroll with you wouldn't hurt. You could accompany me on my patrol." Said Belisarius in a softer tone as he began to walk with her continuing his patrol with the patrol waypoints on his HUD leading them on. "From what I know, he's my descendant or rather my modern incarnation, but what about you. I've only met you once, twice if you count this." Said Belisarius as he glanced around his shoulder looking at Hera.

Hera followed Belisarius taking part on his patrol. She scratched her chin as she thought. "I suppose I can start with myself then." She brought her hands down and then flipped her palms out to both side of her body pointing her palms upwards. "Presenting the next, forced, evolutionary step of the Godzillasaurus species. Unnamed still of course. I was crafted using my sister's DNA. Partly a clone of her, much genetically modified to be leaner, faster, and much more effective. Orion had their biologists on overtime for me." Hera said.

She then rose an arm forwards presenting her forearms specifically. The upper portion of the forearm popped open lifting upwards. Belisarius saw though inside of the compartment was a cannon with writings that attached to fleshy sinews inside.

Not just that, but the armor plate of her forearm seamlessly fed up with a long hexagonal cut of her flesh. Biological fresh, and yet no sign of blood. Inside of the arm compartment was a bunch of mechanical components, wires all mixed in with biological flesh.

Seeing this however, Belisarius felt his crotch plate being tighter than before, Hera would see that her flexing might have induced a boner on him with the bulge on his crotch being more rounded and obvious. "That's quite an impressive achievement they've attained there." Said Belisarius with a whistle escaping his mouth as he slowly held up her arm and inspect it.

As he lowered his head to zoom his vision in on her flesh and sinews merged with the mechanical components, Hera can see there was a neural port on the back of his neck. "Hmmm, looking at your weaponry, I can see that you can tackle just about anything thrown at you." he mused on the technology, but while he was inspecting her, she was inspecting him too.

She saw how his body seems to be chiseled and looking like a classical Greco-Roman cuirass or breastplate armor that invoked the idealized image of a man's body but his legs and arms as well as overall aesthetics were clearly robot wolf. Even his tail was a stubby metal segment to act as counter weight for him to lift heavy objects.

"You're not too bad looking yourself for a furry. Oh did I say that? My apologies. I'm not sure if it hit you yet what some people in this realm align towards. Though I'm not exactly aligned towards that. Not one myself. No as you can see I'm cybernetic. I have enhancements in my joints to increase my mobility, built in weapons, and furthermore-" the hexagonal panels of her legs opened up displaying much of the same flesh mixing with electronics.

Though cone shaped thrusters were seen as well. Her back near her shoulders popped open displaying a pair of smaller cone shaped thrusters built on the inside of her body. "And it's all powered by my body's natural ability to produce radiation. About the only thing that's left that is natural in me. Though I guess for an anthropomorphic wolf that's robotic I would say you're not much of a furry. You don't even know what that is do you? Ehh I spend too much time on the internet worried about others." hera siad in a playful tone as her thrusters retracted back into her body. Leaving her violet colored armored plating on top seamless and without any exposure to her body at all.

Belisarius was seen making a nervous gulp and embarrassed smirk at her face, seemingly impressed, flattered or even felt an odd sort of attraction towards her as they stood on a sand dune looking at the distant horizon. "No doubt working with you would be a pleasure, Hera. Your patron must be the Goddess herself, judging by the peacock on your chest panel there." He pointed his finger to her chest panel and quipped dryly before looking back at the fire and light beyond their current position and crouched down.

"What a sight isn't it? The closest I have to this was campfire on the horizon now… it's everywhere." He commented on the sight seeing the light of tracer rounds reaching up the sky trying to hit cruise missiles and aircraft. Occasional artillery shells exploding and bombs and missiles destroying their targets. "I thought that battles was where I am familiar the most, but now I'm not so sure especially when I share this body with an… additional mind. An artificial intelligence they say."

Hera rose a brow though to his entrancement to the ongoing battle in the distance. She crossed her arms and huffed out. "Maybe if you think hard enough the sight could be close to ceiling fireworks. Minus the death and loss of life. Then again injuries do occur at fireworks displays. Oh there are many reports of displays going off due to technical error. Yes let's think of it in those prospects in our heads." She said as she brought both of her index fingers to the sides of her head and squinted.

However the sight of peace and quiet for them would soon be cut short when they felt the ground shaking, quakes and tremors of Kaiju coming close to them caught their attention. In the process of being shaken up, Belisarius saw Hera was falling by his side and proceeded to grab hold of her and kept her close to him before she can stand up again. With his hands on her side and thigh Belisarius blushed a deep red on his metal cheeks as he held her in his arms, "My apologies." Said Belisarius with a slight canine whimper before they saw that it was Jr, Anguirus and Rodan arriving at their location.

They saw Jr still on top of Anguirus's back. Anguirus tilted his spiked carapace to the side letting Jr side off. Though Jr didn't get up.. Instead he was still on the ground looking dazed and horrified. "Aw shit. Snap out of Jr! Come on. Elurjira is safe at home. Oh crap I should have not-"

Jr then yelped letting out a sharp scream as another vision passed by his eyes. A while after the incident with the first I-Rex he was seen walking through lush jungle again. This time in Vietnam. He saw the clutch. Destroyed however. Unborn corpses and shattered eggs everywhere as well as the corpse of the first I-Rex riddled with bullet holes, explosives, cut marks, and burns. He remembered Shiryu and Girian there.

Though calling him for the mostly destroyed clutch was something unbelievable. Something almost too impossible to be true. He felt his mind tapped into. Called to by something. Or some one. In the nest there was just one glowing egg. Glowing red calling for a guardian. Its biological father.

Jr in his memory hoisted the lone egg up. Cradling it in his arms. A sole survivor of a lost clutch. An unwanted child he'd tend to an nurture. His responsibility to ensure it lived a better upbringing than the mother.

His vision fizzled again this time viewing the face of the offspring. A grey colored hybrid kaiju. A sleek form mixed with godzillian and saurian attributes. A grey colored body with short, but pointy red dorsal plates. A face much like jr's with some of the I-Rex. Her name elurjira. An innocent smile gazing at Jr.

In the real world though Jr fell into tear then. His hands cupped over his face as he began to bawl loudly. Groaning full of enragement and sorrow. "I'm sorry… I couldn't stop it… It just happened Elrujira. I won't let her get you… Any of you…" Jr spoke in a weak hurt voice.

Hera watching him looked up to the kaiju bewildered. "What is he going on about? What happened to him? He's babbling like a psycho, but crying like a man child" Hera said.

"Uhhh. Long story. He met a kaiju that apparently looks like one that uh… raped him. Very long time ago." Anguirus said.

Rodan though huffed out. "These chicken shit bastards got some fucked kind of fighting. i was expecting this to be all easy. Now I got all spiked up, and Jr is crying like me when I feel like crying… which is always." Rodan stated.

"That is to be expected from Vipers, they always play dirty first and last." Belisarius stated with a sympathetic sigh before looking over at Jr's form, the wounds and and marks on his body show that something nasty had indeed happened to him.

"The poor lad, tormented by trauma of his past and they seem to know his weakness well. Hera, I supposed you be taking care of him then, I'll let the others know to be prepared. I guess I'll be redeployed on the frontline soon too." He then tapped his right ear and raised the others on the horn to let the others know of who to take in, Rodan however would notice the distance between Belisarius and Hera being rather close to one another and both were robots in his eyes.

Rodan forward huffing out. "Oh come on Hera girl how many people are you going to sass with your sexy look! How does that even work? If you were bigger and him smaller how the fuck you two going to work out love and stuff. Fuck man I can't get a meaningful relationship going!" rodan huffed out.

"Because you're busy having sex all the time with bimbo bird ladies. Unless you moved onto other kaiju ladies. Or men. I'm unsure what you do actually since going into your cave is always a surprise." Hera teased.

"I. Don't. Like. Men. I don't! I'm not addicted to sex. I'm not a fuck toy for other girls! I'm a strong man! Look at me! Look at me dad! Look at me!" Rodan shouted as he spread his wings out.

Belisarius sighed out however as he lowered his hand from the right ear and nodded his head before turning back to them. "Alright you can take him to the outskirt of the settlement here, Orion will handle the rest with him from what I heard, I'm being recalled however for something important I'll catch up with you when I can Hera." She saw him placing his right hand on her shoulder gripping it for a moment before letting go and run off leading them back into town for Jr to rest and recover.


	10. Chapter 10: Freedom or Death

Chapter 10: Freedom or Death

4 hours since they've been captured and he saw it all. A terrible omen and a sign of what's to come as Joe watched it unfolded from his field HQ of the Chimera, the monitors there showed him footages of green tinted IRNV surveillance footage from a drone, he saw his Orion Recon team being captured all without firing a single shot. It wasn't like he had hoped for, in fact it was much worse.

An entire platoon of Vipers were waiting for them, lying in wait around the mountainous ravines and crevices of the rocky terrains. Just when the Recon team entered their AO and began to make their way to their intended OP, they were captured, surrounded on all sides and dragged off into POW trucks.

Sending in a rescue force for him would be too risky given the urban terrain and their current capabilities in the region, but a rescue must be mounted nonetheless. Next to the surveillance monitor of his laptop was a call window from Hera with sound spectrum monitors for her voice to be recorded and analyzed.

Joe answered the call by clicking on the small call window. The smaller window on the laptop's screen expanded to a larger size now with her mechanized suit gazing at his own camera feed.

"Big issues. Jr, our wild kaiju helping us, just got back to base. It seems the Vipers got some type of psychological element and he's recovering from some issue I don't know about. He keeps mumbling his daughter's name. I think i'm getting a hold of the issue." Hera said on the monitor screen.

"Whatever it is we got another one now. Viper just intercepted our recon element. All of them were just captured. They didn't even have a chance. I was afraid they would have been shot on site where they were, but they are being brought back. Who knows what will happen to them. I need a plan and now. We have to get them back." Joe ordered in a stern voice.

The situation appears tense for him to say the least, as he watched, the truck appear to have taken them towards the village of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. Typical to other villages and towns of the Levants, it was founded on a hilltop perching on a valley of arid desert and fertile farmland intersected by maze like hills and ravines.

Narrow streets, alleyways and multi story buildings were common sight for Levantine urban areas. Making the use of vehicles be it tracks or wheeled highly prohibitive. Even for the elite Roman Legio X of Augustus and Caesar, combat against Jewish revolts in places like this were strictly on foot.

"Sir, there's someone calling you. Said that he wishes to speak to you personally." One of the Orion men there quickly patched into his HUD an unknown call ID.

On his HUD, he saw a silhouette of a wolf face drawn from electronic circuit boards, with crimson red background to contrast with the golden wolf face, Joe knew this was Belisarius.

"Joe Marshal? This is Belisarius, I'm being prepped for field deployment now, I heard that you could use some help with your Reconnaissance Team." his voice came through Joe's ear, synthetic and full of Roman vigor. However Joe can hear Belisarius making some grunts and moaning sound occasionally in the background.

Joe rose a brow hearing the odd noises in the background and huffed out. "You sound busy yourself Belisarius is everything alright?..." Joe asked in a dry voice. He leaned in closer on the monitor arching his back as he sat in a desk chair. It creaked beneath him, but he kept his eyes on Belisairus's camera feed.

He heard Belisarius made an embarrassing grumble as he glanced downward noticing a cable lodging up his tail hole while other robot arms were working on his limbs, artificial muscles and sinews under the robot armor plates. On the back of Belisarius's head was a cable lodging into his neural outlet port to program him with the data of the mission's AO.

"Apologies but it appears that I may have called you at a very… compromising time. I'm being tuned up for the deployment." said Belisarius as the robot arms were now going over his torso and pecs welding the armor plates into place, each connection of the armor plates made an orgasm like feeling to him tingling his senses causing him to moan out involuntarily.

Before him though was Leandros holding a tablet in his left hand, apparently working on the tuning up process. "Anyway, perhaps we can work together to rescue your recon team. Seeing that your Hera is a rather… interesting woman to say the least." Said Belisarius.

"Woman? The way you say it makes it sound like she's been acting all sultry once again. She does this to everyone she meets I swear." Joe said. He thought about how Hera acted again.

The sassy dry sarcasm she used all the time, and displaying her body in errotic femanine ways when representing herself. He shook his head trying to get the images out of his head. They were disturbing him. "Eugh God tell me she's sticking to her own species. I don't wanna know if she's coming onto you. Interesting woman. Interesting way to describe her." Joe said.

He leaned back into his chair and nodded to Belisarius then. "Right. You want to help me then get out of whatever you are doing, and get those troops back. One of them must have screwed up."

"Right, I'll be deploying now, rendezvous point should be provided to you from my commander." The call was shut off and Joe received an enclosed document on his laptop showing a ravine near the entrance of the recon team being the Rendezvous point for them to meet one another. This was all that Joe need to put together his option, at the bottom of the document there was a reminder to him, a Codec frequency to contact Belisarius, 140.15.

Joe looked at the contact number and grumbled. He hesitantly recorded the number copy and pasting it to a document he saved on the computer. Though in his own mind he thought if he should even use it. Belisarius still disturbed him. "Alright. Planning time. I need an expert out there now. Everyone here won't let me do this myself so I need someone sleek." Joe said.

"Then how about a ninja?" A female's voice said to him.

Joe hearing the voice looked over to one of Orion Sword's ninja troopers. One of the female ones who was wearing a sleek armor set. Mostly dark grey metal panels on the body covering her body.

The shoulders had white colored round pads made out of metal, while the armor's forearms had a gun metal sleeve of metal. In between all of this was a durable bullet resistant material that was more flexible than the rest of the armor covering the rest of her arms and her hands.

Her chest piece barely exposed any of her feminine features. Instead it was a grey plate shaped like an upside down trapezoid with a conclave indent on top that was a similar 3 sided shape with each side parallel to the side of the trapezoid. Over this was the dark flexible material that covers her shoulders and the entire neck.

Her abdomen had a similar plate covering it with dark straps holding it and the back plate together. Down her legs were more sleek rounded sleeves with a darker angled accent running up her thigh. Her knee caps were covered by a round plate. Three sides on top angled, and the rest on the bottom round.

The helmet she wore however was the most striking feature since it had color to it unlike the rest of the armor on her body. A red triangular facial plate with the point facing downwards acting ad the faceplates chin, and glowing red slit.

[hr]

2 hours later…

It was a long and uneventful trip for Belisarius, an hour and a half sitting inside the hull of a VTOL transport before hitting the ground and an additional 30 minutes sitting with Leandros inside a Humvee as the robot Lucario drove him to the objective, the route they were taking was cutting through the valley, criss crossing the various towns and settlements. Behind them was an HEMTT transport hauling additional robot wolves for Belisarius own squad.

Wherever Belisarius looked, he saw what could best be described as a maze, hills were everywhere and in between those hills were narrow passes and roads snaking through the terrain. Along the way he saw that there were various burning husks of vehicles left on the road, civilians, IDFs, Vipers, Chimera occasionally.

What remains of human corpses were littered and strewn across the land. On either sides of the road, they saw the madness of war on display with rancid stench of rotting human corpses and blood rising high on their noses. Even Belisarius had to sigh out seeing the carnage of war, he may have become a bit soft, he thought that war was his domain but now he wasn't so sure.

"Nervous?" Leandros asked nonchalantly to Belisarius, the robot wolf shook his head. "Negative, just anxious before battles. We feel that everyday." Once the Humvee came to a stop by a crossroad of highway 3686, outside of Bethlehem, there they saw the ruins of an apartment complex, hillside houses and various ruins of a thriving urban center and ancient holy sites being leveled by artillery fire. Other sightings include half destroyed two-story apartments, houses and stores along a ridgeline with holes left behind in droves.

Leandros then put his right hand to the corresponding ear and called up the Orion forces that were present there. "This is Maximus, we're on-site, standing by for your confirmation." Said Leandros while Belisarius glanced up and looked around the humvee checking for possible ambushes and hostiles.

They heard the same feminine voice Joe was talking to respond to them. "Here as well. Look slightly to your 9 o'clock and you'll see me. Look carefully or you'll miss." The voice whispered.

When they looked they saw that ninja trooper blending into the environment near a dark rock, they could make out the red of the helmet's slit angular optics. Though they didn't know her name.

"Affirmative, we have you insight." Leandros replied to her as he let Belisarius disembarked from the Humvee. Once he was on the ground, the robot wolf then hunched down to a crouch walk stance and make his way towards her while Leandros reverse gear and drove to a nearby garage and park the Humvee inside to hide it.

"Belisarius, at your service, you must be the one Joe sent for?" He introduced himself her before noticing her slender and feminine appearance. It would then make him feel awkward and blushed red upon seeing her. Romans like him have always been familiar with the sight of a man at arms, but to see a woman at arms in the modern world it left him at a loss for words. "That's very… interesting recon armor and gear you have there." Said Belisarius.

"I can hear your voice Belisarius. I'm Caprice Delores. Ex-Orion's ninja trooper. You sound almost flattered. Go on look its fine. The armor is supposed to be sleek. No one can sneak around and perform acrobatics in heavy uniforms." She said as she wiggled the middle of her body in a teasing way to him. "You should know it helps with movement. See if you can keep up while we are hunting snakes today." Caprice said.

Belisarius in turn made a slightly nervous groan seeing the middle section of her body moved, it had been ages since he last saw a human woman in anyway and now it felt so alien to him. "A p-pleasure working with you Caprice… Hmmm my, Orion's Sword is full of surprises." Said Belisarius as he scratched his head in surprise. He reached for the rifle mounted on his back and grabbed it by the foregrip and brought it up to his hands.

Caprice can see that he had an automatic bullpup rifle in hand with a helical, motorized drum magazine. On his midsection he had a utility belt holding addition magazines and a satchel on his back to carry grenades. Seemingly light on equipment but looks can be deceiving. "Is that all you're carrying?" Dolores asked curiously just to be sure, she felt that he was not a cocky robot soldier who would charge headlong into a battle on his own. "Well, I would be lying to say I'm doing this alone." He remarked before letting out a howl of all things.

She soon saw from the rear of the HEMTT, eight additional robot wolves, each one sporting identical UCP digital pixelated grey and silver camouflage pattern. They have serial codes and numbers printed on their chests with some names, usually in the form of ancient Greek or Latin names giving them a degree of individualization.

These robots appear to bear similar weapons to Belisarius with two of them carrying an additional grenade launcher attachment, Earl Lupis was there being an M60E6 gunner with a bipod grip and laser module mounted on the side rail with a holographic sight on the top rail.

The rest were carrying identical weapons to Belisarius with one having a backpack hauling medical and technical tools. Amongst them was Charlie Frost who was carrying a satellite radio on his back to keep in touch with HQ. "Wolves hunt in packs." Belisarius uttered.

"Let's go then, I'll take point while you provide overwatch, there are some support assets but most are patch works, so proceed with caution." He stated to her as he cocked the bolt of his rifle, Caprice heard the round slamming into the well greased chamber with a cracking as solid as an AK. The top of Belisarius's Storm Rider rifle appeared to have a rectangular electronic scope to zoom and utilize various vision modes.

She noted Belisarius's advanced weapon admiring its structure. She herself lifted her arms up causing a pair of under armed tonfas under her forearms to fold outwards as quick as a switch blade knife. "Nice gun you have. Mine's smaller. Never thought I'd be admiring a talking wolf's gun. Alright let's do this then." Caprice said looking for a high ground. A vantage point of some type.

She then traversed to the rooftops of apartment blocks and buildings adjacent to one another. Due to the narrow confine street layers, her traveling was easy enough, occasionally stopping to provide overwatch for the robots as they too began to move out. While Belisarius was keeping a low profile on the ground moving off of the main road towards the densely packed residential district. Along the way, they saw various patrols of Vipers and enslaved IDF auxiliaries being deployed to guard the streets and alleyways.

Most of them were spread out at about 10 meters apart from one another to avoid bunching up and becoming vulnerable to being ambushed. Belisarius kept himself low, crouching and moving with his squad keeping a low profile. They quickly dodged the patrols by ducking inside a ruined apartment and waited for the patrol to pass by, their enemies were equipped with NVG monocular mounted on their helmets.

These were apparently low level light infantry of Vipers as Belisarius can tell by their light harness, tactical vest over their desert camouflage uniform. Their lack of a face mask like their more elite counterparts also reinforce the notion that they were light infantry.

Their AK-74M Rifles slung on their backs or cradle in their arms as they walked about, some of them were seen carrying RPK-74Ms or RPK-12. Two of them were seen carrying 6P41 PKP Pecheneg LMGs as they continued their patrol around the place.

Belisarius can see that his HUD labeled them in yellow diamond symbols to denote they haven't see him, next to the diamond symbol was a green hue square telling him their current status and state of mind being unalerted and relaxed.

As they passed by the squad, he stood up from behind the doorway and lean out to observe the area. Finding another patrol heading down the same path, possibly the tail section of the leading patrol, he backed away and usher his troops to keep low and find a back door.

Earl in the back nodded to him and began to make his way towards the rear of the building and inspect it for a backdoor, he kept low as he heard the voices of enemy patrols around him with their flashlights bounce on and off the walls. He saw a mouse was scurrying on the ground in front of him.

Afraid by his stature and appearance, the mouse scurried away heading towards nearby holes on the walls or den within the rubble. "Rodents." He scoffed before coming over to the nearby door and push it open slowly, he leaned out peaking over the door and look left and right.

Finding that the alley in the back was clear he called Belisarius on the coms. "Hey, Belisarius, back area is clear, repeat back area is clear. You're free to move out." Earl reported in his usual laid back tone before he crouch down and rest his weapon against the door to cover for his teammates as they exit to the alleyway. One by one they pile out stacking up against the walls and observe the different alleyways for hostile movements.

"Overwatch this is Maximus, what's your status?" Leandros asked over the coms network, he was sitting in his Humvee with an iPad like device in his hand, the tablet itself had a black finish layer over it with a gold silhouette of Anubis jackal head on the back. "Setting up in my nest. The place should be booby trapped now. I have eyes on the prison camp. Bethlehem City Center on Manger Street, with a large concentration of enemy assets. Two turrets, one in front and one behind. Looks like the prisoners are kept inside with some outdoor sections for civilians."

Caprice set up her Sako TRG 42 rifle with a bipod on a table stacked with some boxes to help keep the weapon to her face level. Behind her she hung a dark colored drape to keep herself camouflaged and prevent the enemies from spotting her silhouette from behind the window frame. She scanned the target area through her scope, spotting numerous enemy patrols and a lone flame tank guarding the place. Possibly to burn it down should prisoners attempt to break out.

"You are the robot Lucario, aren't you?" She asked Leandros curiously as she scanned her optics over the target area for hostile snipers on makeshift guard towers. "Affirmative, LU-C4510 Leandros, experimental utility and command staff unit for tactical control." He replied to her on the coms with a dry robotic voice, the dull tone seems to remind her of the Rex Units that were a signature of Orion Sword.

"You sound more like a Rex Unit in command than anything. So how do you extract these prisoners?" She asked him curiously before noticing Belisarius and his squad coming close to the place with the squad ducking inside an adjacent three story abandoned hotel. "Incoming transmission, patching in to Unit Belisarius now." Leandros then wired a transmission from Arminius to Belisarius while monitoring the 3D topographical model of the tablet's tactical command view.

"Arminius? What do you have to help?" Belisarius asked cautiously as he hide in the dark corner of an empty and shot up hotel room resting his weapon on a dirty bed sheet still draped over the bed. "Good news, I'm approaching Bethlehem from the Southeast with a Task Force sent by our mortal allies. They're bringing with us much needed transport for prisoners, mortars and armored to help cover our exfiltration in their words."

Hearing this Belisarius nodded and breath easy as he looked down his electronic sight lining his scope up with the target area. "Good take up position and be on standby, we'll give you the signal when we have the prisoners." Some of his robot wolves went out to the alleyways on the side and took up position by a corner to prevent enemy flanking maneuvers.

One of his robots have a rocket launcher model CG M3E1 MAAWS with a computerized sighting system mounted on his back, he rested his rifle against the wall and pulled the weapon out from his back aiming down its sight at the enemy flame tank. "Beta Team, ready to fire." Said the robots in unison over the radio frequency, chatter from Alpha Team Leader Earl Lupis, signified that they too were in position and ready to engage enemy forces.

"Affirmative, Belisarius to all units, weapons free. I repeat weapons free." With a single phrase, the robot wolves sprung into action. The AT gunner fired off his recoilless rifle at the flametank's cockpit, the direct hit by the rocket left the tank knockout completely as the cockpit caught fire. The crackling of automatic weapons ripple through the air and the turret swung to action scanning and suppressive fire on the apartments that the robots hide in.

Caprice didn't wait, she aimed at the generator for the turret and pulled her trigger, sending a Lapua Super Magnum 8.7mm bullet into the generator and blowing it up. The turret went offline with its power supply knockout and the turret's crane like structure to give it elevation fell down, crushing the fences on one side of the prison camp.

The Viper's militia though outwardly appeared well equipped began to fall back behind whatever concrete barricades they can hide behind and return fire. They pop up and down, occasionally blind fire at the robot wolves who returned fire with their Pig's 7.62x51mm AP rounds chewing through concrete blocks and splatter human flesh, remains across the place. Belisarius from his position elevated on the 3rd floor aimed down with his electronic telescopic sight and took potshots at enemy officers that his HUD highlighted.

"Heads up enemy QRF incoming, I count two enemy buggies and a Namer APC." Caprice informed them as she adjusted the aim of her weapon towards the enemy buggy and pulled the trigger. Her shot struck the driver of the lead buggy, throwing the vehicle out of control as it spun into a nearby apartment's ground floor and stuck there in the rubble. The second buggy was a bit better with evading with the gunner opening fire on her sniper nest to suppress her.

"I'm a little pin down here, have to reposition." Caprice informed them as she quickly withdrew from her current sniper nest and used her suit to help her plough through the wall and jumped out to the nearby rooftop to reposition herself.

The robots of Alpha Team were quick to focus fire on the buggy, firing their 40mm grenades at the vehicle, the grenadiers were able to quickly dispatched the enemy fast mover. But the Namer was missing. "Shit, there's one vehicle unaccounted for. Does anybody have a visual?" Earl growled out as he repositioned his M60E6 by a window to cover the front and side of the City Center.

Much to their concerns, the Namer parked on the side of the building an alleyway behind the City Center next to the Nativity Bells, the troops inside dismounted and fan out before running into the City Center to reinforce it while the Namer APC move out of the alleyway and took a turn to guard the facade acting as a barrier. The Namer then fired its M2 Browning at the robots, forcing them to quickly displace and run for cover while bullets ripped through concrete walls, throwing dust all around.

The troops were IDF auxiliary to the Vipers, seemingly well equipped and trained but were confused to the fighting as any mortal humans would be. They took whatever shots they could on the robots, only to see their bullets bounce harmlessly off of the robot's hardened armor hides. The wolves didn't have to much about the infantry as they simply sat back and let Caprice took her shot, obliterating them with a well placed shot piercing 2 enemies at the same time.

"We're running low on time, better take out the APC now." Caprice suggested to them as she ducked down and reload her LaPua rounds into the Sako rifle. "I copy that. That thing is outfitted with APS, my missiles can't put a dent in it." Said the AT Gunner robot as he reloaded his weapon's helical drum magazine. "Let me do it then, cover me." Belisarius barked out. "Hell yes sir!" Earl replied before firing his M60E6 at the Namer's CROW camera in a concentrated barrage of bullets.

He then quickly dashed out and sprinted towards the Namer APC, he vaulted over the barricades and sprinted towards the rear of the Namer before thrusting his gladius through its ramp door. He slashed off the vehicle's ramp and climbed inside stabbing the IDF crew within before climbing out leaving a live grenade inside, blowing the vehicle up into a burning husk.

"Thanks Caprice, my team can handle it from here, keep an eye for hostile QRF, we're going in for the prisoners now." The wolf pack then moved into the city center, finding that most of the interiors had been oddly rearranged and there was blood on the floor trailing away to various rooms.

Something was off when Belisarius glanced up to the ceiling and noticed a strange dark silhouette leaping out of sight, the robots fanned out but kept in each other's view while combing the area room by room for the prisoners, initially they come across innocent civilians being held in herds of several dozens or nearly hundred behind fenced up quarters of the building.

On top of their right optic was a flip up IR light that enhanced their Night Vision capabilities allowing them to search a wide area. Earl and Charlie smashed down a door filled with the stench of rotting corpses and flies, the duo found what appeared to be a makeshift medical surgery room with corpses being stacked up for slash-and-hack like medical procedures.

The bloodied bodies appeared to be cut open, with intestines and organs hanging out, limbs were amputated with some prosthetic limbs being hastily assembled and grafted on them. "Shiiit… Pack Leader, we found something… grotesque here, looks like they were experimenting on folks they herd up. I'm talking hack and slash with the corpses having cyborg limbs grafted on them." Earl reported in but with his synthetic voice stuttering in grossed out tone.

Belisarius in the center of the foyer crouching down nodded to the report broadcasted to him. "Affirmative, mark the location of interest and keep searching. We're moving to the second floor." Charlie heard him and nodded before using chem lights to mark the rooms that he and Earl have searched through before moving on to the next. The robots looked around and found the ground floor cleared with an armory for guards filled with high explosives and standard issued infantry weapons and some Anti Tank rockets.

"Ground floor secured moving to the second now, over." One of the wolves took point and lead the way for them as they head upstairs of the building to search it for captives. His fellow robots followed him closely as they began to converge on the second floor where numerous rooms and stores have been cordoned off with metal fences to be makeshift holding cells.

Caprice watching through Belisarius camera link can see the Orion recon team being held captive. They were all dressed in lighter fatigues that allowed them to sneak around with less noise. They looked rather tight against their bodies printed on with pixelated desert camouflage while their heads were covered in balaclavas. Their helmets were removed along with their NVGs leaving them without protective headgear.

At that moment she saw one of them grab the head of a squad member flinging his head downwards so that his face kicked the top of the other's thigh. "-gonna die in this cage with this fuckoid for gettign us busted! I told you to stay ducked and go slow! They are going to water board us with gasoline or something! OH GOD!" the man shouted.

Belisarius came by the cell and knocked on the metal fence with his hand. "How many of your are there?" He asked one of the prisoners. This caught their attention as one of them ran towards the fence to look see the robo wolves outside with their optics and IR headlamps being only noticeable light in the dark.

"Four of us. Including dumbass here who got us busted!" one of the men said as he punched the meaker man in the arm. "I hope I busted his face in." The same troop said.

"Wait are we being saved by a robot furry now? I must be dreaming." Another Orion trooper quipped while batting his eyes noticing Belisarius's notably high tech aesthetic and his appearance alone seem to make them ponder who could this be. Not all of them are in knows as much as their commanders.

"You'll be safe soon, don't worry. Now stand back this may get hot." Belisarius gestured for them to stay back as he then drew his laser Gladius sword and slash the fence apart. The Orion recon troopers saw that the laser hot blade slashed through metal like a hot knife through butter leaving red hot searing cut marks. Once the barricade was down they were able to get up and leave with the robot wolves.

"Dude they got an entire squad of these… how many are you guys rescuing?" The recon team leader asked Belisarius as the four of them fan out into a diamond formation. "Not everyone but a good number of them would do. Any other POWs around here?" The recon team leader shook his head to Belisarius. "Nah, we're all the POWs you'll find here. The civies though, we can't leave them but can't take them with us either."

"Noted. At best we'll mark their location for followed up forces. Let's go." Belisarius then stood up after some crouching and began to lead the group with him out of the place, first he recovered their equipment and headgear. The recon team finally got their MICH helmets back with quadruple L3 Insight GPNVGs mounted on. While raiding the armory they also took back their weapons, FN SCAR-H MK17 with various attachments.

"Oh man, I am so going to blow it. G-guys I don't think I can k-keep it in me for long." Said more clumsy Orion trooper named Johnny as he followed them trying to keep up with them but his wimpy cowardly voice and clumsy demeanor kept him falling over and again. Belisarius frowned and groaned at this. "Just keep up and you'll make it through, you're a soldier so act like one." He scolded Johnny. "Arminius we got the prisoners, heading to you now. What's your location?"

"We're holding our position to the Southeast of Bethlehem and are engaging a defensive pocket of Viper. They appear to have some sort of new type of monster at their disposal." Said Arminius over the coms laced with static explosions in the background as the sound of cannon fire and firearms crackle through.

"Description?" Belisarius asked as he descended the staircase. "Hostile appear to be cyborgs, they don't move in packs or organized squads. They appear feral with messy bits of flesh and meta machinery around their bodies." Hearing this Belisarius started to realize something horrible in the back of his head. That room his wolves cleared out from before was possibly the surgery room that brutally grafted mechanical limbs and implants on the poor victims.

"I hear you. I think I found how they made those as well. Anything else to bear in mind?" Belisarius asked as he was taking up position around the corner of the building with the robots stacking up for breaching the the rear exit as they began to head out of the city center building.

As they were leading the way for the Orion recon team towards the extraction point, moving through the city they came closer to the Church of Nativity where they heard the sound of artillery became louder and louder. They saw the howitzers were guns of the ATMOS 2000 systems firing loudly through the night at the armored forces trying to breakthrough enemy defenses.

"Unit Belisarius, enemy howitzers in the area are preventing your reinforcements from breaking through. Suggest you take them out." Leandros instructed Belisarius before proceeding to mark the location of the Howitzers around the Church of Nativity's ruins.

"Affirmative Leandros we'll take care of them. Thanks for the heads up." Charlie remarked as they came closer to the church where Seagar gestured for his teammates to crouch down and stay low. Belisarius gestured for Earl to take the lead with his Alpha Team. While Bravo team took up position inside an adjacent building to guard Alpha's flank with Seagar and his recon team eagerly took up flanking position for payback, if it weren't for Johnny bumbling around tripping over himself.

"God Dammit Johnny, how many more times are you gonna trip?" Seagar grumbled at Johnny before another one of the recon team members knock Johnny on the head out of sheer frustration. The thought of having to babysit one team member who was more deadweight than use pain them to their own graves.

"Alright Charlie, I'll give them a warm up dance with the Pig. You'll pop those bastards manning the Howitzers, ya ready kiddo?" Earl eagerly asked as he mounted the M60E6 on a piece of cinder block, "Let's grease 'em, unc." Charlie replied with his optics aiming down the holographic sight of the Storm Rider rifle and once Earl opened fire he followed suit.

The two grenadiers of Alpha Team joined the party by quickly sprinting around the stone wall and firing off their grenades into the church, blowing out enemy defenders with bits of flesh and blood thrown about splattering on the concrete and bricks. "How you like that ya sonuvabitch? I got plenty more for all of ya!" the taunts were more than enough to make Belisarius cringed somewhat as Earl fire off bursts of M60E6 7.62x51mm rounds at his enemies.

Earl's targeting systems and overlay allow him to track and quickly gun down his targets easily if he spotted anyone of them in the open. The Howitzers were temporarily silenced but not completely as Belisarius directed his AT Gunner to fire on the Howitzer while Seagar's team flanked the Church's blast out side wall. They came close and heard the gruff and deep voice of Viper fighters calling for help on their radio relays. "Frag out!" Seagar toss in a hand grenade alerting the Viper fighters inside as the explosive detonated, throwing shrapnel and fragmentation around.

The Grenadier robots quickly with Charlie wired the explosive charges on the ATMOS artillery systems and ran back to cover detonating the explosives. The ensuing destruction the howitzers left them in a better position than before as they continued down to regroup with the convoy.

But as they came close to the extraction, they saw that Arminius alone was fighting off several cyborg humanoid demons. He was using his laser gladius thrusting at one demon's head before retracting the sword and kicked off the cyborg from the rooftop of a building he was on. Another was shot by Caprice who had repositioned herself closer to them but she too was running low on ammo as she reload and took out another Cyber demon with a well placed shot to the chest.

He was blown off of the rooftop by another demon using its arm mounted cannon as the demons began to converge on his position. The GDI armored units that he brought with him opened fire on the demons with autocannons and tank cannons, blowing back some of the beasts giving Arminius a chance to gather himself and reorient. "Belisarius, you should get moving now, the convoy doesn't have much ammo left, I'm all out on my firearms." Arminius stated urgently over the radio.

"I hear you Arminius. Steel yourself and get ready to move, we'll be with you shortly." Belisarius glanced over his shoulder seeing the recon team leader and his unit was ready he then quipped at them, "I hope you're up for a marathon get down to the convoy there." He pointed them towards the sight of some Bradleys and Humvees and Stryker vehicles.

"We'll cover you all the way. Ready? Go go go!" the recon team quickly sprinted down the road towards the convoy while Belisarius and his fellow robots moved down the road firing their weapons at the monstrous cyber demons that were trying to attack the convoy.

Arminius then made a quick head count as the recon team and Caprice came down to him before the robot wolves soon came to view with Belisarius being the last to pass Arminius. "Alright we're all onboard let's get out of here!" Seagar shouted to Arminius they all hopped on the Stryker ICV and threw smoke grenades out and reverse full gear.

"All accounted for?" Caprice asked while sitting with the recon team inside the second Stryker ICV as they were picking up speed heading back to friendly lines to the south.

"Yeah we are. But It's damn Johnny's fault we are here right now!" Seagar shouted.

"S-sorry guys." Johnny whimpered weakly behind them before the sound of him getting a slap across the face by one of his teammates left him reeling further. Leandros however did not speak up his opinion on the matter as he was sitting inside the Humvee to the front of the convoy with him in the driver's seat. "We are leaving this AO now. Tomorrow's offensive into Jerusalem will go as planned meet you there." The robot Lucario stated dryly as he led them all back to the nearby MOB several kilometers South of Bethlehem.


	11. Chapter 11: Deus Vult

Chapter 11: Deus Vults

June 10th, 2034

Jerusalem, the Levant…

Days have past since the conflict flared up and already the fighting has reached the Holy City itself with the opposing armies were now preparing for the worst, to the Northern end of Jerusalem was cluttered with vehicles running in and out of the city.

The civilian cars were on the highway running as far away from the city as possible while the military vehicles were seen heading into the city ferrying supplies and cargo to stock up provisions for the defenders.

Other trucks heading out of the city in a massive convoy however were suspiciously tinted, these vehicles had tarps strapped tightly onto them, covering their cargoes from all sides. The convoy of 6 trucks even had their own lanes to travel through as the Typhoon MRAP KamaZ trucks sped through the highway running as far away from Jerusalem as possible.

From a hilltop overlooking the city, the reporter Greg Burdette was once again making his round of news broadcast to the world. "War torn Jerusalem, Israel. Once a divine Holy City on the hill, now a meat grinder." He began cynically, sniding whenever he could.

"It's been more than a day since the GDI had began their ruthless campaign of conquest against God's chosen people, the bombardment and fighting has reached Jerusalem and the gates are crumbling as we speak. Standing before the city I witness the senseless and ceaseless slaughter of innocents and the mourning of its defenders as losses mount. Only a miracle can save them from this hopeless struggler. This is Greg Burdette, OBN News." As Greg Burdette concluded his news report however the audience were treated to a shocking revelation.

They saw that he was in fact standing in a movie studio with a green screen behind his back to shoot the supposed "News broadcast" for the world to see. And the cameraman was probably sloppy in cutting the signal, Greg was seen stepping away when a man in dark hood and rabbi like robe stepped in.

This one was seen wearing a strange metal helmet with red visor and heavy combat armor. "Good, now do it again in French and German. I want 200 copies of these made and sent to every single stations in Europe and…" He turned towards camera and suddenly his aggression heightened. "Is that camera still running?" He pulled out his pistol and opened fire on the camera shutting it down permanently along with the cameraman.

On Monster Island, the viewers of the news broadcast were Shiryu and Chikiryu the first Rex Units in existence and now married couple. They were in their crystal mansion by the island's Eastern beach and had seen the bizarre fake news broadcast in full like countless others on the planet.

The couple were in the living room of the mansion all made by the now allied kaiju Krystalak. They were sitting on a couch made up microscopic crystal threads and fibers fabricated by Krystalak. The couch like a real one sunk beneath their weights feeling plush.

The two of them were out of their armors as they watched the news together. Shiryu without his armor was a near exact looking kaiju as Jr. Only his legs were the very sleek angular digitigrade robot legs of a primarily silver color mixed with neon green smaller highlights. The upper portions having thick angled thighs that were rigid having a clear shape to them. Nothing runs on them, and having flat faces.

The legs at the backwards facing portion that connects the thigh to the lower portion of the leg was a double jointed round black connection. At the other side that connected to the lower parts of the leg was more angled with robotic details and edges in it.

The lower part of the leg acted as his shin and calf. It was however also very rigid and angular. The general shape of it was like how a shin and alve would be, hut where the calves would curve was an angular indent that narrowed down to his round robotic ball jointed ankles. On the sides of his thighs was a l elongated six sided polygon that stretched to a more narrow hape at its bottom matching the exact shape of the rest of his thigh. It wa neon green coloration.

His feet were unlike a normal Godzillasaurus though. They were small nearly bird talon shaped feet. They were slos rigid and robotic looking matching the angular shape of the rest of his body. The toes were made up of three knife like claws that stabbed at the ground like talon claws. The ankle guard was a simple geometric dark yellow colored color. His toe knuckles were flat green geometric shapes that held the black back parts of the claws of the silver colored knife like claws.

While Shiryu's legs were silver and green Chikiryu sported red and black colored legs. Red as opposed to Shiryu's greens. Black in place of the silver. Both of them were a to thinner in their fleshy bodies compared to other Godzillians. Shiryu's was a much thinner version of Jr's but Chikiryu's body was much more dark in color. She had rough scales made up of bumps and deep grooved scales.

She had a much more narrow neck than shiryu with her own frill being more curved and having short rough pointed spikes in the forward ends of the end of frill. Face wise she had a more narrow snout that was longer Shiryu's thinner shaped long brows that were less pronounced being rougher. At the end of her snout she had a pair of short sharp fang pointed downward from her upper jaw sticking out of her lips.

They were both sitting on the purple colored couch watching the news with equivalent confused expressions. The Viper's Televised newscast weren't the most convincing. Though it unnerved Shiryu they could control the media and sway public opinion of the GDI.

"That's not good. They are going to attempt shifting more support towards the Vipers. Away from the GDI." Shiryu said looking to Chikiryu.

Chikiryu though was looking something just over the couch to her right. She looked back to Shiryu and shook her head. She even rose a brow to him confused by him. "If you're going to be worried about those pendejos then you need to get set straight man. Hun that was a big fuck up on their part." Chikiryu said in a thick Mexican accent stating her opinion.

She stood up from the couch and walked over to what she was looking at. Shiryu in the meantime continued watching the flat screen of the crystal TV sighing. Chikiryu walked back to the couch though with the approaching sound of tiny squeaks, and cooing noises.

She sat back down on the couch as she wrapped the back of her tail behind Shiryu's body. In their arms was a small infant Godzillasaurs with a lean thinner body.

He had no dorsal plates on his back. Only short nubs. His face showed much resemblance to Shiryu, but also having a narrow snout like Chikiryu. His legs though were also digitigrade, but made of flesh and bone.

Shiryu poked his finger into the infant's chest chuckling. "Hey son. He's going to be bored of the news. I hope he doesn't get fussy with us." Shiryu said.

What the couple didn't know was that they were going to be treated to a surprise on the news as they saw the channel was changed to a news report by a frontline journalist of the ANN or Arma News Network. The journalist was named Nicholas Kykloamos, a Greek journalist wearing a pair of shades to protect his eyes from the scorching sun light of the region.

Like all other war correspondents he wore a black PASGT helmet with the "JOURNALIST" tag on it along with a blue bullet proof vest to protect himself from shrapnels of incoming fire. In his hand he held a microphone to the mouth of one of the GDI officer present at the Chimera base in the area, Camp Thunderball. "So uh Colonel Marsden can you comment on the situation? What do you think the defenders will do and how much casualty would this battle cost?"

The colonel of the GDI dressed in standard ACU camouflage pattern of the organization with a helmet on his head with the Colonel insignia denoting his rank coughed and grumbled before replying to the journalist. "I am concerned that they will fight tooth and nail to hold us back and perhaps to wear us down and force us out of the city completely. I fear that the battle's casualties may go as high as around 5000 KIA and WIA at least. Both civilian and military. We do have...uh unconventional support for this battle and they're much more prepared for this fight than us given their technological advantage."

The colonel would then direct the journalist over to another section of the Camp where the robot wolves of Anubis were seen preparing for the upcoming battle, some were manning howitzers firing bombardments into the city's defenders shaking up the enemies, others were directing vehicles to the front line and hauling supplies. Labor robots were seen digging up foxholes and fighting positions to prepare themselves for the incoming retaliatory barrages.

The journalist was soon able to come to a group of robots by a Stryker ICV to interview them there he saw Belisarius and Arminius checking their weapons and ammo alongside Charlie and six other robots prepping themselves. "Here we have the uh… autonomous combat robot wolves. They're from a certain allies I am not under obligation to name… for my sanity's sake. But uh they are willing to let you interview for about 5 minutes before they head out." The colonel stated to the journalist and allowing him to interview the robots, the Greek man was equally perplexed to see them but he opted to try to interview one anyway.

"Could you deliberate what kind of force you are from? Who's your commanding officer and why do you fight?" The journalist asked Belisarius nervously, directing the microphone to him not sure if the robots can talk or sentience enough to give him a human like answer.

"I can at least give you why we fight. I can not in the name of security disclose to you the identity of our leader. Due to disbelief, and our private information. Our location you wouldn't allow yourself to believe. As for why we fight. We fight for you. Your own safeties. Your securities. And your livelihoods. We are here to protect you from dark organizations and rouge entities bent on causing your demise. We are here to protect you." Belisarius explained.

However, his voice caused Shiryu to drop his calmness he had in the moment with his offspring. His expression turned to a frozen state of shock as he glared at the TV. He was on the brink of shouting. Roaring out in revolt after listening to the voice of Belisarius.

He however was behind Chikriyu next to him as she shouted her reaction in a high pitched blurt of shock. "That guy's voice sounds just like Grey's did Rexy!" She turned over and saw Shiryu stand up slowly on his tallon feet As he approached the tv in shock. "Aw shit you heard didn't you. Hey don't freak out over little Chico while he's here please." Chiki said dryly while she wrapped a reptilian hand over the offspring's chest.

"How did they do it?... Why did they do it?..." Shiryu muttered to himself as he zoomed into Belisarius's face.

The journalist who was present there then asked Arminius a question moving the microphone over to him curiously. "A lot of our audiences are undoubtedly curious right now as to your uh… alliance with the GDI. How long have you been working with them?" To this Arminius would give his earnest and honest answer, one peppered with Roman dialect and sophistication while coming off sounding like a Latinized Joe Marshal of Orion's Sword.

"Not long, only very recently but I have come to conclusions that they are well meaning in their pursuits. No doubt enlightened by the wisdom of Minerva or Athena to the Greeks. Since my activation till now, the GDI have proven themselves to be worthy warriors, determined and battle hardened as any Legionaires of Rome." The reply given to the journalist by Arminius simply further petrified Shiryu, it was surreal, horrifying even to see what could be ghosts of his old enemies in mechanical bodies. By whom or what he does not know. But their voices clearly said it all.

The cameraman didn't help Shiryu as he recorded the footages of the robot wolves that Belisarius led, all of whom were apparently anthros standing at around 6 feet tall sporting chiseled abdomen section and roiled up pectoral and muscles. Clad in shiny chrome armor with pixelated digital ACU camouflage pattern with their ranks on their chest along with serial codes and unit numbers, alias if they had one.

For Chikiryu, what could perhaps make her felt nervous was the fact that all of them wore only a speedo like crotch plate with a utility belt bearing their wolf symbol to haul additional ammo and a satchel to carry grenades. Some had an additional backpack carrying special tools for combat engineering, medical supplies in the form of mechanical repair kits, mobile jammer or other communication tools.

Chikiryu looking at them started to make a dry giggle as she saw how toned, and revealed many of the robots were. They had odd humanoid muscular structure to them. Being Godzillian though it was hard for her to get really attracted to them. Though it was still easy for her to see how other would find them appealing. "Act the way you want to Shiryu, but man they sure do have some ass on them all. Hopefully no one else is thinking that since they kinda look like action figures." Chiki said.

"WHY DO THEY SOUND LIKE GREY AND JOE!?" Shiryu shouted in a nearly high pitched voice.

His outburst didn't come without consequence since the infant in Chiki's arms started to let out a faint eep. This was then followed with a small whimper. Chiki glared at Shiryu as she cradled the child closer to her chest. "There there little Janjiro. Your dad's a little pendejo who can't figure out how to keep calm." Chiki said scolding Shiryu.

Shiryu in turn sighed looking at his son. He walked closer to him and extended an index finger. "Alright fine. Sorry son. I'll… just be in a different room. With the door closed." Shiryu said.

"Good. I'll turn up the TV's volume so we don't hear you." Chikiryu dryly teased.

At that moment in Camp Thunderball, the robots were now moving out to the frontline in Stryker ICVs and humvees. Following them closely were M5A2 MBTs, these tanks were sleek and angular much like an Abrams tank with an almost identical turret design. The tank was smaller and shorter than an Abrams though with the design being clearly made for Airborne forces but still mobile and tough enough with Depleted Uranium Composite armor for more conventional forces to use.

The tanks lined themselves up around the berms of Jerusalem's outskirt with their sights trained on the buildings in front of them, others took up positions with Ranger snipers on hilltops and other high grounds nearby to spot hidden threats such as ATGMs, hidden tanks and other vehicles that can threaten the main force.

Belisarius's squad of 9 robot wolves were transported to the Akedalma Monastery by the foothill of the Old City and the district known as City of David. As the Stryker followed the Abu Tor St of the city down narrow roads of the hilly terrain, the vehicle's CROW M2 HMG swiveled around scanning the area for threats.

So far they have only see civilians hiding in their homes, those who could not flee the battle was forced to stay behind and endure the violence. As the vehicle came up near the Monastery, the Stryker ICV stopped and dropped the rear ramp down letting the robots getting off.

One by one, they filed out and scanned the area for targets before moving forward with Belisarius being accompanied by Charlie and Arminius on the right side of the road. Behind the Robot's Stryker ICV was an Orion's Sword IFV, the JSF IFV, or as called by their users the "Fastback" due to its compact design and slope angular armor similar to a Bradley.

The unique differences were the missile pod now sporting three ATGMs instead of two. The missiles themselves were the GDI developed Gungnir Missiles capable of top attack and direct attack against enemy vehicles from ranges of up to 5 klicks away.

The turret itself was a high speed electrical railgun capable of unleashing a more powerful and persistent rate of fire against their targets with 30mm rounds to punch through cinder blocks. On the top of the turret was a smaller minigun to defend the vehicle from swarms of infantry.

The Orion assault team that was accompanying them could see that the robots were taking up positions around the curves of the road using the stone walls as cover while surveying the hillside city of apartment blocks for targets.

The targets below were still relatively unknown by Orion. However, they each watched the robots move and play out battle scenarios in alarmingly human like ways. They felt unnerved this is what they were going to be fighting with. Worse for them was how hard it was to tell if they were actually living synthetic organisms.

"Keep your heads on a swivel, the Vipers could be waiting for us." Arminius whispered to the Orion troops on the coms as he kept up a slow and methodical pace behind Belisarius. The other robots were seen walking around them with three of them trailing along the wall on the edge of the road to observe the medieval walls of Jerusalem's Old City.

"Hold it, my audio sensors is picking up possible hostiles." One of the robot warned them, CLU-01188 crouched down and gestured his right hand forward at the Monastery in front of them.

"You think they're hiding in there? What could they have for us?" Charlie asked cautiously as he lied down on his stomach on the ground looking at the Monastery's balcony.

"ATGMs, model 9M133 Kornet-EM. Delay the vehicles we need to clear out the Monastery manually." CLU-01188 stated to them as he crouch down on the ground looking at the target. Charlie nodded to CLU-01188 before tapping his right ear and relayed the information to their vehicles as the infantry began to move up closer to the Monastery. As they came close enough to it, the Viper fighters inside began to open up and firing a hail of 7.62 and 5.56 bullets at them. The bullets whispered pass some while clanking and ricochet off of the robot's metal bodies.

Belisarius grunted after the Vipers began to unleash a torrent of bullets onto the robots. The outbreak of weapons opening fire was so sudden and extremely abrupt as the silence was quickly shattered by the clatter of multiple weapons firing off.

Despite their robotic armored frames being durable, they still had weak points, and were still able to be damaged. Dents and armor buckling were evidence of this as Belisarius both saw and felt his armor developed some dents. He pulled back into cover using a nearby sandy wall to keep him covered.

"Under fire! Under fire! They were waiting for us here." Belisarius shouted on radio. He looked over the wall getting a peak. "Move up slowly. Take cover frequently, and over run the monastery." Belisarius ordered.

The robots made dolphin dives to the ground and crawled forward slowly, their LMG gunner set up his weapon and lay down bursts of suppressive fire on the Monastery with tracer rounds can be seen exiting the weapon's muzzles every now and then. Their grenadier robot fired a 40mm grenade into the Monastery's window and blew up the 2nd floor's room.

The other members like Charlie, Arminius and CLU-01188 quickly sprinted around the side of the Monastery and approached the building, Arminius tossed up a smoke grenade to cover their approach before gesturing for Charlie to assault the building with him. The robot arctic wolf nodded and quickly burst through the window surprising his enemies within before gunning them down quickly.

Arminius in the meantime punched through the wall grabbing one of the lesser Viper grunts and pulled him out of his hiding place and crushed his skull in the robot's grip.

"Etiam!" He shouted in Roman Latin, leading the robots in his element up the stairs and cleared out the balconies. "The Monastery is secured! I repeat the Monastery is secured, come join us Belisarius, we need to set up an OP from the 2nd floor of this building." Arminius called to his mate on the radio before signaling via body language to the Orion members to move up. "Pugna mon perfecta est…" He sighed out before looking out at the window at the Medieval wall of Old Jerusalem.

After the order was given for the Orion soldiers to move up they did so. It was indicated though by them running forwards popping out of cover wherever they were. They each ran into the monastery and huddled inside. Each of them murmuring anxiously after seeing the robots brawl.

Belisarius though ran up to the monastery with his paws pounding against the ground below. He stomped on the ground making it shake somewhat before flinging himself upwards to one of the second story windows. On the second floor he began to give orders out again. "That should take care of their anti armor. We can move up again. No more surprises though. Fo Sperate." Belisarius stated.

Arminius then crouch down and placed a cylindrical device on the ground. The top portion of the can like device split from the base and lifted up creating an umbrella like circle before projecting holographic map display on the ground for them to review their progress so far.

On the map of Jerusalem, they saw that to the West of the city the GDI were pushing slowly into town, probing at enemy defenses with infantry and light armor before pushing harder with Mechanized Infantry support and their stock of existing Abrams tanks. To the south, there were Orion forces and the Jackal Guards pushing faster and harder into town but their oppositions in this area were militants and occasional Viper's elites.

A caller ID from Anubis was seen popped up on the map with a sound spectrum. "Phalanx to Hoplite, radio intercepts suggest that enemy fighters are dug in and are waiting for you in the Apartment block nearby. I'm dispatching Hecatonchires to help you clear them out. Fire support from Ptah Troops is on station to flatten those defenses." Said Anubis as the holographic map updated and tagged the hillside apartment blocks and the South Wall of old Jerusalem highlighted as their targets before the Temple of Solomon itself.

The apartment bloks weren't too special looking. Rather old blocky looking living spaces for higher residential areas. What was in them though was the issue. Many Vipers waiting to sink their fangs into the Guards. "We'll skin them with ease. The thin walls of the apartments are nothing compared to our forces. Etiam!" Belisarius said as he moved out of the projected topographic map. Now he was relying on the map in his HUD for his guidance.

"Ptah Troops, fire mission grid Hotel-6 India-6, tight barrage HE. Trāicite!" Arminius called in the Artillery barrage while looking at the apartment blocks on the hillside using binoculars laser tagging module to send coordinates and informations to the Artillery platoon. "Coordinates received, firing barrage on target now, over." The robots of manning the M320 Spartan Howitzers behind the line were seen loading up their guns with shells and preparing their automated reloading system.

The barrage would then be fired upon the apartment block sending shells flying high into the air, often from a distance as far as 30 to 40 km away from the frontline. The shells were seen landing on their targets leveling the apartments to ground reducing them to rubles in the blink of an eye with dust being kicked up and debris falling all over the place.

Watching this devastation unfold before his own eyes instead of a video game or movie left Charlie stunted and frozen in awe and fear. Despite his position would expect him to be prepared for such events and yet here he was frozen in fear by the sight of people's home similar to his own leveled in one go.

His vision can pick up various stunted and shellshocked Vipers wandering the blocks and districts, some were without their own limbs while other were just lying in their own pool of blood. Their Stryker vehicle and Orion's own IFV were in turn mopping them up and kept suppressive fire on the enemies that were hidden from sight further adding to the chaos and destruction as Jerusalem burn around them.

From the air, a pair of VTOLs V-320 Valkyrie were seen landing one by one on the hilltop near their position with the cargo ramps in the rear unloading additional robots and vehicle support, namely M5A2 MBTs. But one of the VTOLs deployed the Hecatonchires.

The hulking four armed and four eyed giants of the robot army, their two upper arms were equipped with gatling guns mounted on their wrists. Their lower arms were equipped with palm mounted laser cannons. The 4 robots lumbered forward and took up position around the road and scanned for targets covering the Orion soldiers near them. "Hecatonchires units Aigaion, Kottos, Gyges and Briareos are standing by for combat directive, unit Belisarius." The Briareos Unit stated on the radio as it crouched down lurching forward and scanned for threats like ATGMs.

"Good. Our armor has just arrived. Lead us Briareos. Be our spearhead for this assault. The armor to guide us." Belisarius ordered as he continued walking forwards going through dust, smoke and ash that riddleing his frame dirty with particles. As he crossed into the apartment complex his armor quickly became more dust ridden, and dirty. Smoke and soot dripping over his armor as well as the uniforms for other soldiers around him.

As the Hecatonchires marched forward and lead the way, they were seen gunning down any enemies they encountered, blowing down stragglers in a barrage of miniguns. Some were even stomped by these giants without remorse. Even Arminius's armor was becoming dust ridden as the visibility of the area was reduced to only mere meters from one another.

"Hey you heard from those Recon guys of the GDI? Heard that they saw a ghost or something." One of the Orion assault troopers spoke up as he scanned for targets. The Orion troopers there saw that whenever the robot wolves encountered enemy forces, they brutally exterminated the threats, gunning them down in cold calculated machine precision. "You guys are gay or something? Cause you look the part." He continued quipping at Belisarius.

Occasionally they came across stunted civilians wandering around looking for the remains of their homes, apathy was ridden on the faces of those civilians as they stepped aside and simply let the robots and Orion troops through.

Belisarius grumbled though seeing lost civilians moving around. Despite their lack of care for the robots he seemed to care more than they did. "Is it at all possible to call an extract for the stragglers, or are they to hold out hopefully avoiding this conflict altogether?" Belisarius asked.

"Regrettably, no. I don't think we can do anything to help them now, depends on what Anubis feel the right thing to do here." Arminius stated as they came closer to the Old Jerusalem wall, they saw that the Vipers were still shuttling armored forces towards the Western edge of the city to fight the GDI.

High above the sky, Viper and Israeli Air Force were embroiled in a fight to the death with Horus and the Abyssal deities, often, Horus would tear out the pilots from their jets or slash their jets into piece with his sword leaving their wrecks to fall into the ground destroying more and more of the city.

On the ground for infantry like them, they can see remains and wrecks of tanks, IFVs and APCs smoldering with Viper militias begging for mercy kill from them. Soon enough they were within reach of the Wall where they can see the dome of the Temple Mount but that was when they realize something was not right.

The top of the dome was opening up revealing itself to be a massive missile silo for a presumably Nuclear tipped ICBM, not only that but the Vipers within their command centers were about to unleash their contingency plan to block the advance.

Deep under the earth beneath the protective layers of the Temple Mount and its adjacent holy sites lied the Vipers command bunker, within its war room, there was a holographic map with serpent decor on its gothic black design.

Two officers were seen standing by the map going over the details of their battle groups and elements under their commands. "They've penetrated our Southern defenses, our troops can't hold them back with forces like this." They turned to their overall commander in the region, the Viper commander named Jasper.

"Initiate Code Jesus H. Christ. Slow them down so we can launch the nuke against Cairo!" He ordered them with a booming voice from his commander's seat while slamming his fist on the arm support.

"Yes sir! All units initiate Code Jesus H. Christ! I repeat initiate Code Jesus H. Christ!" The order was sent out to the other forces on the battlefield as they scrambled to prepare for their nuclear launch. Outside of the Old City, Belisarius and Arminius felt the rumbling on the ground as various bombs exploded around the perimeter of the Old City, from those explosions, chemical toxin clouds were seen seeping out covering the neighborhood around the place.

Yellow toxic clouds leaving many reeling, civilians were seen choking and coughing from the toxin. Most died on the spot while parents held onto their children as families died together. Even the common Viper militants were dying from the toxin while their more elite brethrens were still waiting for the enemies to come.

With all of this happening so suddenly Belisarius became too shocked to give out orders for a while. The demented Vipers by this point were destroying their own conquered areas, and their own troops to prevent the Jackals assaults. It was disgusting the lengths they took to ensure the Guards would not become victorious.

Once he got his grips back to him Belisarius looked to the missile and grit his teeth with anxious fear. "Missile! They are going to attempt launching a nuclear device on us! Command do you read we are in an urgent situation!" Belisarius shouted.

"Oh man this is defcon shit man!" One of the troops shouted.

"Bringing back some memories here! The world's been nuked enough already! Grey Boss Man proved that!" the soldier named Seager shouted.

Belisarius ordered the men however to move through the toxic gas. It was standard by now for the Orion soldiers to be wearing gas mask of type. Filtrated one, or even opens with a hose and gas tank. They crossed into the gas and grunted. Often mentioning a mad doctor out of bad memories named Thrax. Belisarius as he moved didn't recall the name all too well.

"Hoplite, this is Phalanx, I read you. The Chimera are reporting toxins around the area as well, they're dispatching HAZMAT teams to those to contain the threat. But you need to stop the launch right now. If that missile flies we'll have nuclear war to wage." Anubis ordered sternly sounding like he was really outraged or driven to fury seeing the sight of the toxin filled streets of Jerusalem and the depraved monsters Vipers have always been.

The robots and Orion troopers who were entering the toxin filled areas saw that the area was simply too dangerous for them to move about in tight formation. They spread out trying to cover as much ground as possible but the narrow streets and confined houses were keeping them from being able to maneuver quickly.

As a result the second Robot squad was seen following behind guiding their vehicles slowly through until they finally reached the Wall of the Old City. "Alright grappling hooks up, give us some lines. Ibi Iacēte!" Arminius shouted out to the robots who then fired off grappling hooks on to the Southern Wall, establishing traversing paths for them.

"Let's go Belisarius, time to save the world." Said Arminius as he hooked up to the lines with some robots and Charlie and began to scale the wall, other Robots and Orion troops stayed behind and provide cover fire.

Belisarius climbed up his own grapple by using his feet to travel upwards walking up using vertical foot stepped while one gun held his weapon in hand while the other was held up in a fist with the grapple hook's hold take on the wall kept his body up and his arm extended flat. "Moving now. Pugna non perfecta est!" he shouted in latin.

With the assault team pushing forward, Viper forces on the top quickly rushed over to intercept them. They ran along the wall trying to cut the hooks only to be suppressed by the robots and Orion troops below, men dropping down on the ground with bullets riddled corpses.

The more elite Viper Operators aimed their weapons down vertically only to be shot up by the Jackal Robots. Some were lucky enough to score some kills on the robots dropping them with well placed shots while the Hecatonchires traversed the wall, reaching the top of the place.

"Directive: Protect Unit Belisarius, clear out the Vipers. Termination protocol commenced." The Hecatonchires's leg clamps planted the giants to their positions on the walls as they began to spray hails of Minigun leads at the Vipers that were guarding the place, more of the Vipers on the open ground below them ran for cover knowing the high ground has been lost only to be killed in the process.

"Infirmus! Those weaklings are hiding in the Temple Mount! We need to take that dome structure now! Charlie, take the others and guard the entrance for us, Belisarius and I will clear out the area below!" Arminius ordered Charlie who nodded to the two. "Sure thing, just hope these Orion guys don't call me something." Much to his dismay however one of the Orion assault troopers had already caught on with his own quip for Charlie.

"Yeah sure, faggot." Charlie groaned out hearing this. "You look way too sexy, get some pants on will ya?" The Orion trooper continued to mock Charlie while the robot arctic wolf took up fighting position around the gate of the Old City.

"Oh ignore them. They obviously aren't too familiar with how your realm operates." Belisarius shouted as he got over the wall. His taking though was replaced by silent precision as he shot down surviving Vipers on the open areas after vaulting the wall. He muttered as he did so becoming more frantic and urgent. "They are buying the missle time! They'll sacrifice their lives for it! Eliminating us while doing so!" Belisarius yelled out.

Arminius and Belisarius would soon burst through the doors of the Temple Mount, pushing deep into the inner sanctum of the base to try and disable the launch.

This led them deeper into the underground base, along the way more and more Viper elites were slaughtered leaving them with little oppositions that was until they came across a Vault. An odd one at that.

The cavern was huge, perhaps made by humans without advanced machinery and tools that were ancients to say the least. The place was a catacomb and Vault combination with various sections for each individual corpse to rest silently.

Around the place there were various control panels, computer equipment and towers to control the missile and other operations. One of them appears to be an excavation into the inner sanctum of the Vault.

Deep inside, Arminius and Belisarius would see that there was a large sarcophagus at the end of the vault with two Egyptian statues of Set standing guard on either sides of it.

But before they could take in all these, they heard something, a mechanical whirring sound of actuators and locomotives and hydraulics. And from on top of them, a red robot slammed its feet down on the ground, sending the two flying into opposite directions.

The robot was humanoid standing at 6'5 feet tall with crimson red chassis and frame. It armor appeared to be a more beef up version of Belisarius and Arminius while its head appeared to have no facial features and only a smooth round head.

"I've hunted many dogs before in my career. But you two would be my finest trophies yet." The robot stated menacingly, the head piece popped open revealing it to have a human face underneath. Genuine flesh but the skin seems pale and sickly green with the eyes now turned blood red and black lips. "Wild dogs of the Afterlife, you are begging for the Jaeger to end your pathetic existence." Said the cyborg as he flipped the headpiece down and began to join the fray.

Belisarius groaned as he stood up. He looked up at the menacing form standing over them and glared at the massive cyborg. Being more built up like a hulking tank made the smaller wolf robot more cautious facing the new adversary. "What is this? What type of Viper are you? Damn get ready to fight!" Belisarius shouted. He swung his arm upwards, and charged up the plasma cannon on the palm of his hand preparing to fire.

Jaeger, as the Viper's robot was called quickly grabbed a large energy blade from his back and swung it around, narrowly missing Belisarius as he lumbered forward trying to catch up his more agile wolf opponent. Arminius from behind opened fire on the red robot shooting at its back before sliding forward and kicking his heel, causing the cyborg to tumble over.

Belisarius would see that Jaeger wasn't going to let himself be bamboozled for long, Jaeger grabbed Arminius's face with his left hand and slammed Arminius into the wall before dropping him to the floor. The robot wolf rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging Jaeger's feet stomping the ground. "That thing is too tough! We need to take it at the same time!" Arminius grunted as he got up to his feet. Jaeger would then fire off hundreds of electro shock grenades to electrify the floor.

The electro grenades managed to shock and jolt Belisarius while the cracked off in blue and violet colored bolts of electricity around him. He forced himself out of the area affected by the attack by holding his body forwards. He fell to his chest, but quickly used his arms to force himself up to his feet. "That's the only way to do it! My plasma cannon is charged Arminius! Let's say we do something?" Belisarius asked.

Arminius grinned to Belisarius and charged up his own Plasma Cannon and aiming at the red robot with Belisarius. "Right on, love." The two of them fired their plasma cannon at Jaeger, pushing the cyborg back and slamming him into the wall. The cyborg fell to the ground with two holes on his chest but he wasn't out of action just yet. "Nice try doggies, but…" He stood up slowly before glaring at them. "It's not over yet." He boasted while holding his fist up.

"Wasn't enough! Well it's about to end for you!" Belisarius boasted. He rose his left arm upwards extending it flat forwards. The panel behind his wrist traveling up his forearm opened up. After it opened the grapple hook he had in his arm shot out towards the cyborg. It blasted around the machine-thing's arm. After this Belisarius pulled backwards while grunting to use his weight to pull the metal beast down.

Jaeger grunted in surprise being yanked forward by his enemies, as he was being yanked forward, Arminius jumped up and made a flying kick on Jaeger's face sending the cyborg flying back with the arm that Belisarius had his grappling hook wrapped around ripped out of its socket. Arminius then opened up his thigh compartment and drew forth his laser gladius and charge at his opponent with Belisarius.

"Think again mutts!" Jaeger roared out in anger as he stood up, his remaining arm opened its wrist panels activating the energy blades and parry the two robot wolves's Gladius from dealing their deadly blows against him.

Belisarius grunted feeling a wave of opposing force quake through his body vibrating him violently. After the quake he felt gaze lock onto Jaeger's robotic face peering at his otics angrily as he held the sword. He lept backwards, and stabled his own gladius in had.

He carved it at an angle and charged forwards to strike at Jaeger in some way. He rolled himself forwards, following by getting back to his feet after the roll, and then using the forwards momentum to send his own laser gladius towards Jaeger's abs.

This would then be followed by Arminius thrusting his blade up Jaeger's chin, pushing the blade up into his brains, dropping him in an instant. With the cyborg done in, he ran over to the control panel looking at it, seeing the red panel there showing that the missile had only a minute before launching. He then tried to reverse course of the launch tapping and panel and trying his best to cancel the launch as best as he could.

"Launch sequence cannot be canceled. If you are trying then you must be dumber than Pride and Accomplishments." Said the monotonous automated computer voice of the base as Arminius struggled to cancel the launch. "Haha. Haha. Haha. Try again, it's no use loser. You might as well pre-order the Digital Deluxe edition of Cancel the Launch now and be done with it." The computer voice continued its mocking tone to Arminius and Belisarius.

"Deal with this." He snarked back before sprinting over to the missile itself, he slide on the floor and slammed his fist into the missile's body and ripped out the control circuits. This was followed by the missile sounding its power down as the launch was being canceled.

"Alert! Alert! Alert! Malfunctions detected in Jericho-III missiles, aborting launch. Aborting launch. Screw you cheaters, you weren't supposed to do that." The computer continued its snarks at the two while Arminius sighed out in relief while the Orion troops above can hear the computer's snarks on the PA system.

Belisarius then sighed out as the missile was shut down. He didn't yet relax and shook his head. "We have to set up defenses now while we extract this thing. We need something fast. Something that can get this out of here before they attempt to come back." Belisarius spoke.

"Affirmative Hoplite, I hear you loud and clear, reinforcements are being dispatched to your positions now, it looks like Vipers are abandoning Jerusalem and are retreating now. You did excellently." Said Anubis to Belisarius over the radio in a congratulatory tone giving the two a moment of relief as Arminius hugged Belisarius tenderly patting him on his back before kissing his lips embracing his lover.

To the north of the city where the Vipers are seen retreating out of the city in a massive column of military vehicles piled up on the highway creating congestions and jamming traffic. As they were attempting to retreat as fast as they could, they became sitting ducks, on the sky above lurking in the clouds came a USAF B-52H Stratofortress flew overhead.

The USAF bomber dropped their infamous payload of awesome destruction on the enemies, waves upon waves of Mk84 bombs devastate and obliterate the Viper vehicles into pieces destroying them completely. Once the highway was completely cratered with Mk84 bombs and burning wrecks of Vipers unconventional vehicles, the B-52H flew home to its air base in Incirlik, Turkey.


	12. Chapter 12: Holy Land

Chapter 12: Holy Land

The White House Press corps was once again at its usual round of interviews and conferences with the Head of State, the room was packed full of journalists from various media outlets in the country and some correspondents from abroad. There, they sat down waiting for President Gentroff to take the Podium and brief them on the matters of State.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States of America." The White House official announced to them, directing their attention towards the figure of a tall, thin and somewhat skinny caucasian man walking up the Podium dressed in usual black tuxedo suites and polo shirt. He had an American button pinned on the left side of his suits, where the heart would be.

"Good evening to you all. Let us begin." Said President Alexander Gentroff as he held the stack of papers of key notes he need to remember for his speech and press briefing of what just transpired. He knew that he was about to commit political suicide for his career, but this was the threat he had to take.

"4 hours ago, the United States of America has entered a State of War with Israel, the US Air Force and Naval Assets stationed in the East Mediterranean Sea and within striking range of Israel has launched an all out bombing campaign to disrupt, deny, and importantly destroy Military targets within Israel and known elements that harbor the terrorist group known as Vipers." His statement struck home to the journalists, all of whom were perplexed and shocked to hear that the man would go through striking Israel.

"Mr. President, what does this mean to the rest of the USA? Will the American people have to go to war with their supposed allies in the Middle East?" One of the journalists asked Gentroff holding her phone closer to him to record his statement. "I'm afraid that would be the case. However one thing must be bear in mind is that for the past 19 to 20 years, the relationship between Israel and America has become increasingly strained. Just last year, the terrorist group known as Vipers launched a ruthless and cold blooded terrorist attack against America. Deep in our soil with the intention to butcher and murder innocent Middle Eastern refugees and Americans aiding them. With the senseless and animalistic glee, I remind you." He sternly stated, making sure that all of his country can hear his voice and opinion loud and clear.

"Mr. President, what will you do to engage Israel and the Vipers? As far as we know, the Israelis condemn the Vipers as terrorists and disavow them. The current ruling party, the Likud stated that they have no interests in providing havens for any violent non-state actors." Another male journalists asked Gentroff with his pen in hand ready to note down his statement.

"Let me tell you that it matters not what the official statement of a political entity is. The underlying interests and the actions that corroborate the advancements of said interest speak for themselves. The Likud may state that they denounce terrorists, but the fact is we have numerous recorded usages of IDF's bases being offered to the Vipers and they are within Israelis borders, not outside of it. The War criminals will of course have to pay in due time and I would not tolerate another day that Americans must pay their taxes to fund Israelis wars." He loudly boasted before the room, pushing the journalists into a frenzy of questioning and try to pry more answers from Gentroff as he walked away.

[hr]

Jerusalem, 19:00, June 10th, 2034.

Night has finally came to Jerusalem as the Holy City slowly find some solaces to itself after the intense urban combat it had seen earlier in the day. For the shell shocked and dazed population of the city, it would be better to stay inside their homes and waited for the semblance of normality to return, occasionally they heard an explosion ringing through the neighborhood every 10 or 15 minutes.

EOD Teams of the GDI were busy sweeping the streets and interiors of each buildings and alleyways searching for the threat to living spaces. Landmines and other booby traps were never to be taken lightly, they can lie in wait for decades, never sleep, never waver and never in their commitment to maim or injure their victims.

Other relevant personnel for the job from Orion's Sword and Rangers were also hard at work, cleaning up the debris from the streets and provide humanitarian aids to the trapped populace of Jerusalem. The workloads of the average GDI grunt seems to have doubled in order to accommodate the important Hearts and Minds mission objective by providing food and water to the population.

But while the Chimera in general were busy with handling the humanitarian aids and cleaning up toxins from the Old City, Anubis himself was busy with something else, a matter that seems to be a private but important thing to him. His men showed him the way into the Vault underneath the Temple Mount, and he had been there for 4 hours straight refusing to come out.

He brought with him the Sphere he found under the temple of Thoth in Arsinoe, hoping to find revelations dwelling within the walls of the Vault. The Jackal Deity was kneeling before the sarcophagus of Wepwawet, flanked by statues of Set Sutekh. The tomb appeared to have various Egyptian decor with hieroglyphics and depictions of Wepwawet's life.

With the Orb sitting comfortably before him facing at the Sarcophagus, Anubis patiently waited and observed to see if there were any anomalies going to happen. He sighed out not finding any desired effects, he thought about leaving, returning to his camp and engage in some activities to keep him productive and focus. That was until the orb suddenly glew up, its glow was luminous, bright as the sun itself as it soon erased the sight of the Vault from Anubis's cybernetic eyes, he saw a dark void. Darkness of death, fear of the unknown; the solitary confinement of the void would soon be shattered when Anubis heard the haunting voices of something, someone.

It echoed with each words and sentences the ghostly apparition of Wepwawet spoke, he seems to be arguing with someone and it seem to suggest he was being furious with the tone he used.

"It is over Wepwawet… come back to your family, your father and mother. The war is over and we have won." Thoth pleaded to Wepwawet with the silhouette of Thoth being outlined in white apparently hunching over pleading to Wepwawet who had his back turned to Thoth.

"It is not over yet! Kadesh is not ours yet and we settled for a half baked peace treaty with the Hittite! You can go home all you like, but this war is not over. Not to me." Wepwawet shouted angrily to Thoth, his fury seem to be equal to that of Set as Anubis could recall, Thoth was seen sighing out and rubbed his forehead in disappointment.

"Why must you cast aside your home for conquest of faraway lands?" He asked rhetorically as he turned away from Wepwawet, leaving him to his devices.

The void and vision disappeared and Anubis was left with the sight of the Vault once again. With nothing left in sight to him to comprehend, he felt it was time to pick up the Orb and return to his camp for questioning. Namely questioning Thoth for his knowledge of Wepwawet.

As he came back to his camp, he heard the sound of another set of metal feet clanking against the ground. He felt the presence of fury, rage, anger and frustration. As Anubis glanced over to his left hand side, he saw Set walking about in Jerusalem, planting flags of the Egyptian Pantheon, black background with a golden hawk of Ra spreading its wings, in its talon the hawk held a bundle of wheat and in the other talon it held the thunder of Zeus. "Figure I would find you here." Said Set with a slight growl as he rested himself against the wall. "Figured you would come, care to explain the flag planting." Anubis sighed out. "A reminder, of who is their superior." Set curtly stated.

"You may walk with me back to the camp." Said Anubis with a sigh as he walked Set back to his military camp, along the way they passed by weary populaces and confused Haredi Jews who mumbled their disdains towards the Egyptian Gods in the shadows of alleys. "Care to elaborate why you came here?" Anubis asked Set as he walked side by side the red robot deity, whose anthropomorphic form seems to sport a pair of red mechanical wings on his back and a long curve round snout.

Set looked between the alleyways and grumbled in a grumpy angry voice looking to many of the scared populace in some disgust. Though he hesitantly looked back to Anubis keeping what seems to be a stern frown on him. With the black mask on it was hard to tell his expressions. Though with his body language alone and how brightly his red eyes were glowing it was easier. "There was something I meant to discuss with you. Haivng to do with your current venture here…" Set said without acknowledging his flag patriotism.

Anubis hummed in thought looking up at the flags that Set liberally planted around the place along the way back to their camp sitting comfortably on a high ground area overlooking Jerusalem. "More than just annexation?" He sarcastically asked as they passed by the camp gate. Inside the encampment, Set can see the robot canines were busy at work building up their work and living quarters in the camp. Not only that but there seems to be VTOLs flying in and out ferrying supplies and reinforcements.

Set looked at the various worker in the camp working. Though he never recalled Anubis's army looking this robotic. They use do be clear souls stuck into suits like metallic jackal flesh. Sometimes modeled after jackal, or walking suits of armor.

This was completely different than what he remembered. Clearly robotc canines walking around. Wolves as far he could tell with an occasional variation between what type of canine he saw in the group.

"This is new… Why am I seeing so many mechanizations of your creation roaming around? I sense no real soul within either of them…" Set said to Anubis.

"A little scientific experiment goes a long way. They have AIs, instead of souls but that doesn't exclude the services of the Dead entirely." Said Anubis as he passed by Set coming to the campfire in the center of their FOB, there he was seen sat down by a piece log warming himself there with Horus and the Abyssal deities, Thoth was seen between Horus and the Abyssal Crow who had his hand sitting comfortably on Thoth's shoulder. "Tis a lovely night isn't it Thoth? The stars, our moon, and victory over those wretched serpents, things seem to go well." Said the Abyssal Crow with a croon to Thoth's ear.

Thoth however sensed Set's presence immediately feeling fearful of him finding them. He was extremely cautious and shocked by feeling his presence, but he quickly got his fears hire as he then saw Set staring at them. With how sexual the crow was being and how close and intimate he was Thoth felt himself melt nervously.

Set was equally as shocked seeing Thoth as the two of them stared back at each other. Thoth however was way too shocked to even make a peep out of his avian metal beak. Set got his reaction out first. "What is that thing?... Wait. I think I can rember." Set said as Thoth nervously shook his head around. He planted his hands on the rugged chest of the Crow trying to push him back.

"N-n-no! It's not what you think. We were just having a m-monet Set. This was not a- an intimate moment." Thoth stuttered nervously as he looked back at Set again with worry and partial panic in his head. "And you don't remember them?"

"Ah Anubis, you've returned at last, how was the Vault doing for you, brother?" Horus asked Anubis chirping out in a more positive and upbeat manner. He however noticed his brother sitting down with a frown on his face. "Not exactly the brightest of revelation… it's a tomb, for a soul not a body. The soul of Wepwawet, Opener of the Way. All I found was a fragment of his memory. It seems he was having an argument with Thoth over Kadesh, the Hollow Victory of Ramses the Great." Anubis rubbed his forehead a bit before catching the attention of the Crow who took this revelation with a slight giggle as he levitate over to Set and proceed to grab him by his crotch plate. From his palm, tendrils sprout out rubbing themselves against Set's crotch plate, making wet slippery noises and send shiver and pleasure up into Set's body. "Care to elaborate hmmm?"

Set though barely noticed the Crow grinding his tendril up against his crotch plate. On impulse Set simply stretched his arms out and rested them against the ground behind him as he was forced to rest them down behind him while he collapsed.

He made a shaking nod to Anubis starting to growl. A growl making Thoth forget his grievances with the Crow being too close to him. Now he was more scared with Set's noises. "Yes... Care to Elaborate with me on...W- W-" Set ended with a stutter.

The Crow would then grin as he then slowly let Set lie down on his back looking at the stars above, the celestial body of his mother Nut the Goddess of the Sky. The Crow's tendrils continued their slithering presence on Set's loin region as he felt them probing the locks on his crotch plate while a lone biomechanical tendril was reaching out to his tail hole grinding against it. "Perhaps you would like to tell us and Anubis here a little of this… Wepwawet. Peering into Anubis's memories give me so much interests of who this could be, and why your statues are guarding his tomb."

Set though immediately feeling his tail hole prodded against by the slithering tendril of the Crow moved backward trying to breakaway from him. "What! NO!" Set argued. He flung his feet and legs back and forth kicking away at the sand beneath him. "That's why I journeyed here! Not about the damned machinations! About this business with him! Wepwawet Dammit!" Set shouted in an almost hurt sounding voice crying out in a more dramatic way suddenly.

"Oh seems I have hit quite a nerve there. Struck gold perhaps." Said the Crow with a bit of sinister cackled to himself as his tendrils morphed back inside his palm leaving Set wet for a moment. Anubis and Horus can see that Set was genuinely hurt, shocked and violated and perhaps even distraught at the mentioning of the name alone.

"Enough! If he is to admit anything he would do so with me in private, Crow." Anubis sternly growled at the Crow who in turn gave a smirk "As you wish." He replied playfully. The dark jackal deity then held Set by his right arm and led him into the Supreme Commander's tent in the FOB. "Come with me Set, if anything let's keep it between you and me first."

The Crow to this let out a proud smirk. "Successful father and son bonding, just as I have planned." Said the Crow as he sat down next to Thoth and the Abyssal Scribe. "He was a bit more resistant to the tendrils but in the end, he cracked." The Crow mused.

Thoth however groaned anxiously as he was back in the presence of The Crow and The Scribe again in an intimate closeness to the two of them. Now though watching Set walk back to a commanding tent with something Thoth himself seemed to know didn't sit well with Thoth as he had an anxiousness to him different from the one he was facing with the Scribe next to him. It seemed to be related to Set as Thoth convened to watch with a guilty face.

The Scribe watched Thoth's face curiously and quickly noticed Thoth's general anxiousness. He cocked his head to the side and made a grin giving Thoth a silent grin. "Ah he knows something alright. Watch his gaze towards Set. Look at him. He's completely frozen with shock." The Scribe said.

The Scribe tilted his head towards Set as he walked away with Anubis. He could feel something else was wrong with Set. He kept the reaction of Set in mention to Wepwawet face close to memory. "Something you too need to share with us and soon Thoth. Now I'm more interested on this story." The Scribe said.

To this the Crow held out his hand and made a Tsk-tsk gesture before kissing Thoth's lips gently, massaging his shoulders. "Patient dear Scribe he will do so in due time. I know it's a certainty, perhaps let's go for an evening stroll shall we Thoth? We wouldn't want to disturb the young Crown Prince with the sight of the Abyssals fucking him senseless." The Crow extended his hand to Thoth as he kept on kissing.

Over a different section of the FOB where container like barracks were assembled into living quarters for the robots to go about and hang around, Belisarius and Arminius were seen at a staging area inspecting the new robots. This batch was a fresh one, roughly a battalion worth of them and all of whom were uniformly painted in digital ACU pixel camouflage pattern.

Their grey pixel camouflage marked them out as similar to Belisarius and Arminius with their rank, serial numbers and names painted on their chest, on their tail holes, they had cables plugged into their rear access port charging them up while the robots felt orgasm and pleasure.

Arminius was holding a piece of paper written in Latin for them to read, it would seem the report stating these robots were in fact deceased Orion Sword members from past wars with their souls now inhabiting the robot bodies similar to Belisarius himself.

Belisarius took a glance at the sheet of paper that Arminius had with him, and found this major fact a bit alarming. Each one of the robots he had known so far were at the very least copied from the personalities and experiences of souls. He didn't know who the souls were however. "Oh. They are from my descendants faction. That makes this a bit odder for me." belisarius said with a minor sense of anxiousness.

He thought about this though for a while laying back down on his back. He thought of the successful mission and defences he put up with the other robots that he commanded on the battlefield. They so far had a mutual relationship that he could mend well while commanding them. He looked to some, but barely could tell each of them apart aside from viewing their numeric names in his hud labeling them under numbers. Like a new language to him.

He could at least recognize a few patterns among the groups of robots there. Some who served with him in the battles he took part of. Others in a much larger he could recall just roaming the many places he had been ordered to stand with.

At most he could still give them the same orders without any of them risking remembering who they were. As long as they didn't have a trigger to make them imprint him as . This fact eased Belisarius back up. He could command them again despite this fact. "Nevermind. That doesn't change anything" Belisarius said.

"You sure Belisarius? I should check them beforehand just to be certain of troubles. Are they able to recall their previous life Inquisitor?" Arminius asked the Inquisitor robot standing nearby, much to Belisarius's chagrin he saw the inquisitor with a devilish Set like head nodded to the question.

"Yes they can. It is entirely possible that this would happen, according to reports from the plants on the Tartarus, the souls have been properly coded into the robot bodies and the that assist them. They should be waking up now." Said the Inquisitor with a slight grin as the robot wolves slowly woke up.

Their LED emerald green optics flashed up, blinking to life as their HUDs booted up and their visions would soon for a moment, static and fizzle before finally settling into place allowing them to identify Belisarius and Arminius as their commanders. "Well then let's begin, can you recall who you are uh… CLU-01224?" Arminius asked curiously to a random robot glancing at the serial code number before glancing up at his face.

To this though Belisarius felt his heart jump in shock as he felt a wave of tingle rush through hhsi body hearing this surprising detail hit him. "Wait they can now?... Oh. That is surprising. These ones in particular are former KIA souls. How recent were their passings?" Belisarius added.

"The oldest amongst them were KIAs 15 years prior. The more recent ones are around a year ago. Now then…" The inquisitor robot snapped his finger, causing a ringing sound to enter the robots heads causing their AIs to recall their memories from before, the moment they died, the whitelight of their dead and the oblivion of the life beyond the graves. It all flashed back to them like a blur recapping their lives before letting them freely look around and observing their surroundings. "There you go, that should orient them a bit easier now. Your show now… Major Belisarius." The Inquisitor stated with a suave congratulatory tone to Belisarius, offering him to step up and inspect the Orion's Sword robot wolves.

Belisarius stepped away from his charging port ensuring he was unplugged, and able to move on his own as he approached the new stack of robots he was presented there. He took a look into each of their optics seeing what they would do next. Seeing many of their expressions he could see most casualties were from pre world GDI vs Orion War issues.

Many were from other operations either against the GDI in smaller skirmishes or from other world parties. Some during tours in the Middle East, or other places. Mainly they were throughout east and southern asia. Others were from Russia or Europe. They were all there, and yet Belisarius didn't recognize a single one due to multiple reasons.

One of the robot wolves shook his head out, confused and dazed by the feeling and was reasonably confused by the feeling of orgasm entering his body. He glanced around noticing other robots were also experiencing the same thing, he saw the one in front of him had a cable latched up his tail hole and he felt weirded out by this, an awkward moment.

He soon realized there was also another cable in his own rump pumping pulsing energy inside of him. "Whoa, wait what? What's going on here? Where am I and what happened to me?" He asked out loud in confusion looking around to the other robots to see if they had the same reaction as him.

All of the other robots started to realize something was out of the ordinary as they felt where their anal passages were intruded on by a foreign object in them. The buzzing and flowing of electricity at least ensured some pleasure their, but the tingling was unwanted, and unexpected as the others let off a confused murmur. Each of them looked at their new bodies. Each of them all dazed by how they weren't in the human form they remembered.

The reactions didn't sit too well though with Belisarius. He was still expecting them to not remember a thing. Memories wiped since they aren't the ones the AIs experienced themselves. "Okay hopefully this batch still operates as normally. Or else we might have a minor issue." Belisarius stated to Arminius quietly.

Arminius likewise nodded in concern to Belisarius as he watched the robots murmuring confusedly, their bodies remain frozen in place with their servos and motor function locked down while being charged. Once the cables had left their tail holes, allowing them to walk about freely again, Arminius howled into the air using his robot wolf's vocal system to mimic the wolf cry, this act as a rallying call that the other robots were programmed to follow as they walked towards him and Belisarius.

"Wait what just happened? Did we just obey a wolf howl? Does anybody here have any memories of what happened?" The robot wolf asked around confusedly looking to the others trying to find some sort of answers. He heard Arminius clearing his throat at the group of wolves catching their attentions.

"If you would lend us your ears, then revelations will be disseminated to you all." Said Arminius in a Roman calming manner. "Let me ask you all a question. Who did you serve before you died?" He asked them, waiting for them to answer on their own volition.

One of the wolves awkwardly stepped forwards still looking at his body starkly confused. "I don't remember who I am. Who's was I?... All I remember was an explosion and I was flung out of building I think. I hit something on the ground and…" The wolf shuddered. Belisarius read the wolf as "CLU-01738" another simple set of letters and numbers denoting him as the CLU units.

Another one under the name "CLU-09734" spoke up afterwards grabbing his and rubbing his head confused. "I remember I was in Tokyo. I think at least. All I can feel is a burning feeling, and just blue everywhere. Except it doesn't feel like me. I just hear explosion, is that a roar?" The confused wolf asked.

Arminius nodded to them as he stroke his chin in thought before glancing over at the Inquisitor robot next to him. "You said they can recall their memories yes?" He asked, the Inquisitor nodded to him. "Aye, that I did. I gave them a brief recall of their memories allowing them to remember bits of their past. The dedicated process will take time of course, unless your craftiness may provide them with a better method of recalling." The Inquisitor's words jogged Arminius's mind a bit as he thought on the matter before leaning over to Belisarius. "Perhaps let us take them to the Orion's Sword camp nearby. This would jog their mind and help them recall events past." The second in command robot wolf whispered to Belisarius.

"A bit of a risky move. These ones are special though. There so far hasn't been an issue we can't fix through reasonable means. We can learn something through this." Belisarius said in a nod. He moved his arms to his back holding his hands together. "Come on then." He turned his back around to the robots and began to walk with the expectation they would follow.

Under their programing though he was still their commander. Despite having seemingly more memory than the other robots these wolves had a smaller rougher start to follow. Though they eventually started following feeling the comfort of following a leader like the programming was some type of warm impulse to them. Some closure on where to go and where to follow.

"You know what Rome taught us, Fortuna favors the bold." Said Arminius as he walked alongside Belisarius leading the robots with them out of the FOB, officially they were to go on patrols, as a result, each robots were issued a bullpup assault rifles to carry along.

They would see that most were issued with mostly identical weapons while some stood out with a machine gun variant that had a dedicated backpack and ammo belt feed directly to their machine guns. The battalion were seen walking out of the FOB heading to an open area before coming over to the Chimera's encampment in the area, an Orion's Sword FOB Anaximenes.

As they came into the camp, the other Orion troops there alongwith some GDI logistic personnel were stunned at the sight of their "Reinforcement" being a battalion of robot wolves.

Though lacking vehicles as they seem to march on foot by themselves and hadn't organized supply chains, they seem to keep to themselves in an orderly manner as Belisarius and Arminius were seen entering the camp. "I heard we'll get reinforcements but I didn't know we would have these guys… fucking furries." One of the GDI logistic personnel there stated with apprehension as he slowly swallowed a piece of an apple he was eating.

The wolves then looked around the FOB immediately being attached to it like a very familiar setting. For some reason at least it felt familiar to them. However, the GDI personnel there specifically gave them each a nervous feeling. As for other still normal Orion Sword epersonal the robots looked at them as if they were allies. In fact he preferred to stare at them.

The feeling unfortunately wasn't mutual as the Orion soldiers who were human looked at the wolves like they were aliens. Being they could barely understand with the only familiar part about them being the animal they were based off of.

"They already appear to remember this architecture can barely recognize each other though." Belisarius said.

"Indeed, I wonder if they'll be able to fully recall their memories." Said Arminius as the robots began to wander about looking and staring at the FOB noticing the architecture. One of them came by a tent and saw the Orion's Sword symbol on it, he stared at it for a moment before a flashback jogged his memories.

It was a bit foggy at first but he soon saw something, his Orion's Sword patch on his shirt, him sprinting across a desert with various allied vehicles following him. Then a blast ruptured the ground, he was dead from artillery shellings. That was when he gasped before sprinting over to a nearby Orion's Sword trooper. "Hey, i-is that you, Iron Rhino isn't it? I think I remember you, we were in Kazakhstan together, Baikonur remember? I was shot to bit by an artillery. Did we win the war?" He asked the trooper confusedly.

The soldier designated under Iron Rhino however shook his head to the wolf speaking to him. He stopped his activity of eating a simple chocolate bar seemingly recognizing the wolf' voice. "No. In fact nobody really won… Why? I thought everyone knew what happened? Orion Sword and the GDI called for peace. Grey was killed by Shiryu, and we pretty much gave up, but the GDI didn't continue either. You sound a lot like Evan man. Wait who are you seriously?" The soldier said in an alarmed voice standing up.

The robot wolf would then tapped his forehead a bit, hearing clanking metal sounds coming from it as he felt his memories began to jog back to him. "I-I am Evan! Yeah I was Evan, Thunder Mustang. I was stationed with you in Kazakhstan and shit. Last I remember was waking up in this… robot and there was this wire going up my ass." Said Evan as he flail his head around confused while the other robot wolves were fanning out, slowly recovering their memories with Arminius nodding in approval to Belisarius. "It's working there, give them time and they'll recall themselves."

"I'm not quite sure if I want that to happen. Cross your fingers an adverse reaction to this revelation does not occur." Belisarius said watching the interaction unfold.

"What the hell? Are you sure it's you? You sound… we all are confused. Why are you in a walking action figure? A wolf one. I could have gotten you in the 90s man. Or right now for my kid." Thunder Rhino said still Perplexed.

The two of them backed away unerveed from each others reactions. One was seeing a ghost. One was seeing his former life. Both of them were having trouble accepting the past as it happened right in front of them. Belisarius grumbled in thought at least thankful the robot who was formerly known as Evan kept calm.

"I don't know man, I just don't know. First all I remember was that I stuck in a black void, I couldn't think, or breath or anything like I was frozen. Then I saw something, like a light pulling me into this action figure and now I'm a robot." Evan shrugged looking down at his chest noticing the serial code number on his body, CLU-01224. His name seems to be missing though making him less like humans and more of a robot now than anything. "But...good god am I glad to see you alright. I think the other robots are Orion's Sword guys like me."

True to his words, the other robots were heard going about asking others about their names, recalling old memories and so on so forth. It felt like an eternity to some while others felt like just yesterday. While this is was going on, Joe and Wallace Barringer heard the rumbling and muttering from outside. They saw a battalion sized force of robot wolves talking and interacting with Orion's Sword personnel and there were a lot of men confused and freaked out upon seeing the robots.

After stepping outside there was almost no way Joe could not see the immense force of Jackal robots standing there. He kept watch looking at the confused conversations going on very clearly hearing a mix of confused voices mix together between the human forces and the more paranormal forces happening at the same time. "Were we expecting anyone today?" Joe asked taking a glance over to Belisarius and Arminius. Just by looking at them as his vision shifted over he could tell where the arriving forces had come from.

"I don't think so. I don't think i have seen any of them talk either. They all sound like they know each other. What is happening right now?" Wallace Barringer asked perplexed by all of the comotion.

To this, Arminius would then hand Joe and the lead engineer of Orion Sword a piece of paper, the same report he had kept from before to let them know of what was in store. They would see that the paper was written in Latin, Roman Latin with dialects that they may not recognize but Arminius was there to help with the translation.

"To: Major Belisarius and 1st Lt. Arminius (Congratulation on your promotions).

Subject: New addition to the Jackal Guards.

Details: Recently a new batch of robot wolves has been assembled and delivered to the FOB, most important detail to note is that unlike previous robots piloted by , these are inhabited by souls of deceased Orion's Sword servicemen. With you being the ancestor of Mr. Grey the head of Orion's Sword, I figured you would be suitable to lead them as you would imprint on them well."

The last bit of the report seems to be like a hammer striking at their forehead with the fact that these robots were souls of their own dead in robot shells. "Similar to me and Belisarius here, when they are activated they would experience amnesia and confusion due to their lost of memories. But in time, they will recover their memories and recall who they were." Said Arminius to Wallace Barringer and Joe.

"I thought you guys said they weren't souls. Programmed copy and pasted things inside of metal bodies." Joe said looking at the paper confused by this revelation.

"They were Joe. This new set here though is more special it seems than the last ones. We were surprised to hear this as well, but they appear to be socializing well with your men." Belisarius said gesturing to the two factions' soldiers interacting with each other.

Looking around all of them saw at least the canines and humans getting along relatively well. Both sides were confused on the circumstances. Though from hearing what Anubis usually practices Joe felt it was a matter of time before this in particular happened. "Should have figured he would start using the actual souls again. So there's that. Can't be surprised by this. But... Now I'm wondering what this is all for." joe said.

"I'm more curious on how they got a soul into any of the machines here. We could be going by what some believe happen with Girain and Kiryu way back in the day. But they don't have real genetic materials for any of that to occur do they?" Barringer thought.

Arminius shook his head to Barringer however, "I'm afraid not, they lack the flesh and blood materials needed to restore the human consciousness into the robot shells. Of course being a God, Anubis can perform feats beyond our humanly understanding." Said Arminius as he stood there with them. "Mr. Barringer, as the head engineer as I'm aware in Orion Sword, perhaps you could have some of the robots, or Belisarius and myself to examine our technologies if it helps build up trust between the two of us." He offered the lead Engineer calmly expecting him to take the offer. However, what he didn't expect was MFS-7 Hera being around to meet them.

Hera came around the corner putting herself down using her right hand with the powder Anubis had created. It was around the time she needed to re-apply the magical substance, but as she was doing this she immediately noticed the battalion. "Okay who announced a convention here?" Hera asked tersely huffing out as she walked forwards.

She looked through the soldiers hearing some of their voices and immediately glancing between several of them. "No seriously what is going on? What is this about a technology examination? Its looks like a science fair, or expo, and more of a fan gathering out of nowhere.

"Oh hello Hera. I wasn't expecting you to be stationed in this base." Beliasirus added to her as she came around mingling in with the anthropomorphic robots. She moved some out of the way as she listened into their voices. Belisarius grunted seeing her forcefulness with what she felt. "She seemed to have forgotten us. As for your examination I'll offer myself mainly. The ones around them barely understand their biologies still. Not risking any of their securities or comforts with this." Belisarius said.

Wallace looking at Hera nodded. "Hopefully he doesn't spoil their trusts before then… Very well I have been meaning to document something from this." Barringer said.

Arminius nodded in agreement to them both as he then patted Belisarius's shoulder. "Good luck then Belisarius, I'll be gathering the robots and brief them on current matters. All of you, regroup over here!" Arminius howled out to them, the sound and rhythm of the howl activated a programmed instinct in each of the robots as they came to their commanding officer bots. Once they congregated around him, he then spoke out to them, briefing them on important matters.

"Listen carefully all of you. You are dead men. You were dead men, but you have been giving new life, an extension of the one you had lived before. For mortals such as your friends and families are threatened. Threatened by a merciless brutes and blood thirsty craven cowards known as Vipers. They have come to this land to butcher and do all evils on Earth to the innocents. They even had maimed, hurt and killed your own comrades as well. You are here both as protectors of the innocent and avengers, bear in mind that Anubis, Patron of the Dead watch over us all and he will guide us to victory. Regardless of time."

Hearing these words made the robots muttered and talked to one another in confused manner at first then revelation and understanding afterwards. They realized something, the Vipers that their commanders had once sheltered and provided for had turned against them and everyone else. In the process they were now the enemies and the robots were there to stop the Vipers no matter what. "Any questions from amongst you, speak quickly for we have much to do." Said Arminius as he panned around looking at the robots.

His only response was a muffle voice form in the back of the crowd of wolves that declared in a loud and unfinished manner. "One of those fuckers killed me in Miami when they turned!"

Hera turned to listen to that voice in particular. "Wasn't that one of the sergeants? What is going on?!" she said as she looked to Arminius just then taking in his speech. "All of them?! To think that might be a higher ranking soldier before he died. Can you remember your name Jenkins?" Hera asked taking in the details.

The crowd split apart partly looking between themselves while the oen designated as Jenkins stayed awkwardly quiet feeling a familiar feeling of awkwardness. Not with the attention, but the attention of Hera now looking him. "N- no." one of the crowd meekly said in a gentle murmur. "She's still think after we lost!?" one of them whispered intensely.

"Know this warriors, your memories will eventually return to you, given time and proper stimuli of familiar places and faces you'll recover your identities. For now, stay focus and stay frosty on the job." Arminius instructed them carefully handling the crowd of robots there as he then assign them to spare barracks and vacant sleeping areas for them to get some rest for the night.

Some of the robots were mixed in with the Orion human troopers with their robot bodies being noticeably heavier, forcing them to use sleeping bags on the ground instead of foldable metal beds.

He then stepped up next to Belisarius and Hera, "They'll rest for now, you must be the MFS-7 Hera Unit Belisarius told me about. You seem rather...illustrious I must say." Said Arminius with an inquisitive tone looking at Hera's body.

"And you yourself seem to sound a lot like Joe." Hera said shifting her focus away from Joe and back o Belisarius. "So does everyone have an ancient ancestors? I'm still confused on how the logic and process work."

Before he could explain to Hera she rose a hand to Belisarius and Arminius both. "Just-.. I'll try to figure it out for myself at a later date. You really got me concerned since I think I have heard some of these voices before." Hera said.

Belisarius nodded. "You recognize some of the voices here? How well did you know these people before they were killed in action?"

"Not long. And not well. When you have been surrounded by nothing but dull personalities for a while that all act the same, and pretty much look the same the human counts that weren't robotic tend to stick with you." Hera commented.

"I can understand the sentiment my lady Hera." Said Arminius as he began to walk with Belisarius and Joe into an engineering shack with Hera, "You are named after the wife of Zeus? I would have thought that you are the goddess herself." he commented to her as they came inside the shack finding the place to have numerous mechanical and high tech equipment, mostly for what Orion would call "Technological Forensic", reverse engineering.

There Belisarius was seen laying down on what appeared to be a dental chair with mechanical arms above and around him holding instruments to dissect him. "That would look painful for robots like us. Some of these equipment are used for your maintenance Hera?" Arminius asked in concern as he watched Belisarius being examined by Orion engineers and technicians with Barringer to supervise the operation.

Hera nodded to Arminius and rose her arm upwards. Some of the robotic arms initially began getting to work on her right arm. The arms grafted out some minor scratches, but immediately buffed out a small dent in the armor. "Yep. Though you might want to avert your eyes for-" a loud pop came from one of her arm joints. More specifically the elbow connecting her forearm to her upper arm. The arm came apart much like an action figure would disassemble.

They both got a good look of various thin connection peices wires and internal flesh of her arm including small serovs and metal motors that mixed in with actual biological components like muscle tissue and flesh.

Stranger still even after the armored arm came disassembled she still seemed to have partial control. The separate armored plate of the severed arm piece disassembled into smaller pieces of sharp looking angular armor before their arms. It was hard to make out the grey connection pieces of the separated armor, but it all seems to fit together usually as one piece.

Though without her covering armor they gotta see her reptil arm under the armor was always on the surface made out of flesh. But the stub on the inside showed bone lined up with small wires and mechanical and metal parts. "Usually these work on the surrogate bodies so they would normally work on me. Not quite as thorough. One of you two looks impressed by the lack of blood. Simply but it's channeled through larger plastic veins that sink down into the flesh contact one arm to the other. And whenever cut flesh panel open roaise and close each of the plastic pipes connect or sever. Never a drop of blood lost." Hera said.

"Impressive, it makes the process of surgery on your body much easier to treat wounds and such." Arminius widened his eyes slightly at this seeing the sight of Hera's inner workings and the kind of cyborg whose flesh and mechanical components were integrated and put into working orders in tandem with one another instead of being separated.

As for Belisarius who lying down on the bed next to Hera, the engineers utilized a robot arm with a laser scanner hovering over him, scanning a spectrum of blue ray up and down his body mapping out the body mass and layout. On a computer monitor they had the body modeled digitally showing it was formatted accurately. One of the engineer tapped on Belisarius's chest plate hearing metal clanking sounds.

"This has to be most unique metal alloy I've ever seen, it's much tougher than titanium alloy that we know of, but significantly lighter. Like the basis for Hera's MFS armor." He commented apparently surprised by the feel of Belisarius's armor, the camera they had panned downward, noting Belisarius's abdomen and pelvis region, seeing how these were chiseled, proportioned well enough and even looking like the most ideal form possible of Classical Greek sculptures. "Judging by the density and thickness, it's meant to be storehouses for built in weapons and prevent possible rupturing from inside, and tank damages from the outside." Said the engineer as he noted down the finding.

Barringer typed these notes down on his computer nearby clacking away at the keyboard. The light ray would flash a bright color flashing brightly once taking a picture of his exterior chassis before taking a deeper x-ray photograph of his interior body. "What kind of metal alloy would this be then. Almost alien to me." Barringer commented.

Whatever the metal was that covered his body made his an agile tank. While the rest of his body was made up of some type of fleshy fiber that simulated flesh it was still arguably the heaviest part. Somehow the amor remained light. He seemed both in some awe as his eyes widened in shock. "I'll need to get some microscopic images of this alloy later on. Possibly determine what the atom is. So far it's similar to titanium, but still different enough to either be it modified or something completely different." Barringer said.

Hera on the other hand reattached her arm to her socket as everything within connected and popped into each other with ease. She flexed her now armored arm and sighed. "Well we know where the budget for armor on our vehicles is going. Just hope the Rex Units weren't too attached to what they were wearing before." Hera said in s dry voice.

The engineers and Joe would soon see that the X-Ray photos and images of Belisarius's body appeared to have various synthetic like organs, they looked almost like real organs with their placements being identical to that of a human body fitting the anthropomorphic form.

Not only that but they can see that there were noticeable mechanical components on the organs. With the lungs they saw various air filters and chambers to analyze the air and prevent poisoning. The heart appeared to be regulating the pressure within his body's veins and energy flow.

Other organs such as digestive organs were present allowing him to apparently eat and drink with water they can understand, but exactly what type of nutrition he ate was up in the air. However once they were reaching down to his pelvic region, they would see that his crotch plate was like a speedos covering his limp rod and genitals hanging underneath it. There were reproductive organs storing Nanites in similar manner to human male's semen suggesting he could in fact engage in sexual intercourse.

Wallace looked down to the sexual organ rather taken back by its presences. It purpose he didn't understand in a robot. He shoot his head out. "Definitely unlike the previous MFS series of units. That wasn't present." Barringer calmly stated while documenting this fact as well. He leaned away form the computer apparently used to this though. "Judging by the amount of complete systemes you could properly be living. So far you're meeting all the requirements. Lets see there's… Breathing, Eating, um… well I'll have to get with someone who's a biologist later, but this reminds me of working on MFS units for a times. Before they actually had life to them. Real working systems." baringer said.

Hera though had her gaze fixated on the screen that were still monitoring his genitalia. She scoffed a bit seeing it wasn't a structure she was familiar with. Not of her own species, but for some reasons its alien structure looked sternly foreign to her. "I'm grossly aroused right now. So if you're larger in size there does it matter as a robot? And if you are living how does transmitting genes work? Evolution? Uhm. we might need to rewrite a few details in since textbooks." Hera said shaking her head out. "Bad ! stay down…" She said to herself in gentle mumble.

Arminius cocked his head aside curiously noticing her reaction and the sharp contrast of Barringer's more calm reaction to the finding. "It would seem that Hera is… more than just a friend to my Belisarius here?" He asked her tersely while glancing over at Belisarius's face.

He noticed that his mate Belisarius was still awake with a cable latched into his outlet port allowing Orion to access and copy schematics of his robot body and technology. This would allow them to study Belisarius's body and prepared to provide him with basic maintenance and repair as needed. "I can tell that you are...budding into our relationship." Said Arminius as he crossed his arms before his chest and looked at Hera's face.

Hera popped her eyes opened to the word "our" she looked over to Amrinius after he stated this detail to her and shock soon found its way through her body. "Uh 'our'? Okay first off I'm just curious about this. Secondly are you two uhhh…" Hera pointed and index finger between the two of them going back and forth. Barringer rose his face and kept in a laugh.

Watching her swivel her body back and forth he snorted keeping in rare laugh. Though on the few occasions he actually has a sense of humor on hand he wanted to use it. "Hera you look like you are malfunctioning right now. Do I need to evaluate you more over this?" Barringer said with his own sarcasm.

Hera shook her head out and crossed her arms. Her optic flickered red for a short moment while her arms crossed over her chest. "Try me. Why are you not making a bigger deal over this? They are very much homo errotic!" Hera exclaimed.

Belisarius laying down grumbled looking to Arminius for help. "I feel like I may have taken in a position I'm now feeling awkward in. It's perfectly natural even though this is not the member I had in human life." Belisarius stated.

"Yeah you think? I'M stuck between being weirdly aroused and just weird out by it. You want to move the camera away I think I have gotten my fill of what his intimate regions look like for now." Hera stated waving her hand down rapidly.

"I'll be sure to leave a picture of Kiryu, or Stuka's somewhere for you." Barriger said causing Hera to let off a sharp much more Godzillian growl to him causing him to jolt in a starlte. "Okay too far i'm sorry." Barringer said now examining he other parts of his body. He nodded and concluded the research then and there before it got too out of hand.

Once the research was done Arminius and Belisarius were seen exiting the shack with Hera as they head to bed with the others. "I suppose that we'll be seeing each other again tomorrow, maybe patrols or work around the FOB, anyway, good night Hera. See you tomorrow." Said Arminius as he kept a more professional pose in front of her while maintaining his distance uncomfortably close to Belisarius. "Oh well okay then doggo, I'll be seeing you two then as well. But oh by the way if you're jealous then how about we all have a threesome and get even huh? It's for free.~" She crooned to him and winked teasingly at Arminius causing him to back away awkwarded out by her, on instinct he wrapped both hands around Belisarius and cuddled up with him. "We...already have our shares of threesomes, with Anubis." He boldly lied to her before inching away slowly to the barracks where their spare sleep bags were.

Belisarius though watched Hera as she walked away. Listening to her giggling still he could tell she was a rather free spirit. To her words were much more loose yet kept in a more suggestive connotation usually. He looked to Arminius and cleared his throat.

"I felt that was you saving yourself for me. Heh heh. Very well i don't mind it. Just know we do have some policy on lying." Belisarius looked back at the direction Hera walked off to and grumbled. "I haven't made my mind up about her. I can never recall a woman that free before." He said in a more impressed voice.

"Neither have I, the women of Rome that we remembered were all confined to the house and domestic life. Time has changed." He sighed out before coming inside the barracks with Belisarius, inside they found the Orion robots trying to get themselves comfortable and settle in temporarily.

The robots were also intersected by human Orion soldiers with some of the humans ones inspecting the robot's standard issued weapons and marveled at the design. Belisarius and Arminius were sleeping at the middle of the barracks, cuddling into one another as Arminius hugged Belisarius in pressing their chests against one another while looking up at his mate and superiors. "Good night Belisarius." Said Arminius before he kissed Belisarius's lips passionately.

Likewise Belisarius wrapped his heavy arms around Arminius's body. He was still long enough to yawn at least darring Arminius in closer to himself. Both of them despite being large and muscular still had a rather tender side clearly with how tightly the two slept together. "Good night Arminius. We'll see eachother in the morning." Belisarius said.


	13. Chapter 13: Uncharted territories

Chapter 13: Uncharted territories

 _Late of May, 1274 B.C_

 _Somewhere near the Orontes River, Kadesh…_

 _The King was on the battlefield, leading his warriors in person like all others of his peers from rival lands. Riding on his chariots with his driver holding the reins over the steeds, Ramesses the Great survey the battlefield before him, scouring the land for revenge against the Hittites who had raided his camp earlier in the night. His chariots were the finest force there is on the planet, as far as he was concerned, the red haired pharaoh looked around before spotting the Hittites Army nearby laden with loots and supplies on their heavier chariots._

 _Seeing the opportunity like a hawk sighting his prey, Ramesses ordered his men to quickly charged in to engage the Hittites with archers raining arrows on their targets, chariots skirting around the formations of the Hittites bombarding the enemies with precise and accurate shots before running away and resume the dance over and over._

 _At first it would seem as though victory was in his grasp with the Hittites taking heavy casualties and he himself was the scourge of the Hittites, the Son of Ra was victorious. But on the horizon to his right, he saw a sight he dread, his victorious grin melt away upon seeing the Hittites flanking him with his chariots still engaged._

 _Retreat would be a wise choice his advisor would say, but what would his scribe write? He was here for the glory of war and here he was facing Death in the eyes with the enemies pressing in on him. His face turned pale at the sight, feeling that he was going to be cut down in his prime of merely mid to late 20s. That was until a miracle happened._

 _From behind his personal forces, an additional Egyptian Army has arrived to save him, sweeping in like a desert storm, arrows nocked and loosed from their composite bows. Expert archers and warriors from Canaan and Philistines charged in slamming against the chariots of the Hittites, throwing their offensive into disarray. Amongst those who were there, Wepwawet was at the forefront. The Opener of the Way was leading them firing his arrows in barrages, slaying the multitudes of foes with ferocity of wild animals._

 _"They are retreating! His Majesty has triumphed over the Hittites!" Wepwawet declared proudly to the surviving Egyptian troops, all of whom burst into a thunderous applause and roaring cheers at their victories. All save for Ramesses. "The battle has been won, but we have suffered much losses. Let us retire to our camp and take stock of our losses." The pharaoh ordered, seeing that he was their divine leader, the Egyptians took his word and prepare to march back to his camp. "Surely His Majesty isn't afraid of the Hittites? We've dealt them a powerful blow here today, we can push forward and take Kadesh." Wepwawet declared to Ramesses, looking at the dead on the battlefield and the carnage it left behind._

 _Men and horses lied limp and lifeless on the sand, pool of their blood darken the land while banners laid tattered with wrecks of chariots twisted and bent. "No I fear not them, but the folly of wars can be settled with matters of wisdom instead. Perhaps Thoth the wise Arbiter of the Damned may be of assistance." Ramsses sighed out exhaustively, hearing these words were like hammer blows to him, Wepwawet was left stunted and his eyes twitched hearing the mighty pharaoh spoke in tone of fear and shaken instead of proud bravado like Pharaohs before._

The memories of Kadesh were revelations to Anubis as he sat in his commander tent, the orb sat on his table with the light glowing from within projecting the memories around the room like a Virtual Reality playback of datas and contents it held within its spherical body. Set was lying on the bed next to Anubis, sleeping and resting with the bedsheet over his chest covering him to allow peaceful rest. "So...this is how it began...the fall of Wepwawet, the Death of a God by his own pride. Was this lost part of Set's rejection of me?" Anubis mused in thought as he studied the memories.

[hr]

When morning comes over the the Holy City of Jerusalem, the guards were shifted with the night watch given the rest they need while the day watch rose up and had their breakfast.

For the Chimera, there had been reports of recon teams and patrols sighting odd anomalies, visions of ghosts, hooded anthropomorphic canine apparitions running about briefly before disappearing from sight.

Others claimed to have seen oddities like hearing voices whispering in the wind at their ears and worse still, seeing visions of old battlefields littered with corpses and spoils that seem fresh but definitely ancient judging by the looks on the corpses and uniforms alone.

In the Orion Sword camp however, the personnel there were busy going about their daily routines building the FOB's infrastructure up before deploying troops further in-land. Some of the personnel there were talking to each other at breakfast in the Mess hall visibly frightened and creeped out.

"When they said that we'll have reinforcements, they didn't tell me we were gonna have robot wolves. Fucking robots and ghosts of my dead pal. And two of them were gays men! GAY! FUCKING! ROBOTS! I saw them making out last night in the barracks." One of them screamed out terrified and dumbfounded.

The others though clamouring amongst themselves seeing the one soldier's adverse reaction. "I don't remember if they were gays." One of the soldiers said. "No they weren't that was fucking weird. They weren't licking they were mouthing intertwined or something. Gross shit." Saeger said while dressed in casual lounge clothes.

"Tell me about it." Said another Orion soldier with a more grossed out reaction, he rose up to look out of the tent they were in and saw that outside, the robots were seen at work.

They were apparently digging up sandbags, filling up fighting positions and other works. Some other robots were seen repairing vehicles, providing maintenance for tanks like the Spectre tanks, IFVs and other crew served weapons.

"Yeeesh keep this up and they'll replace us, or we'll be forced to join them or something." Said the soldier as he watched the robots working with efficiency that was inhuman. "Wait a minute how do they recruit new guys again?" He asked bluntly but he hoped others would take the question as a rhetorical one.

To them mechanical components need extensive time to get used to and work with. Often taking hours and here the robots only need minutes to get things done as they know how mechanical components work.

The robots continued to work around the camp they were continuously watched over by passing by Orion soldiers. How they continually worked out quickly fixing damages and repairing parts at stunning speeds. Those passing by to get breakfast already noticed the robots weren't going to the mess hall to eat as of yet. Though with how they were working they wouldn't be going to the mess hall for a while.

As they worked about, Belisarius and Arminius were seen walking about inspecting them and how they work, it would seem that for now, the robots were focus on being productive and some were still struggling to recall their memories still as only fragments have returned to them. "We're still doing good for the time being. They are keeping themselves productive and helpful. The only matter we need is the mortals approval." Arminius commented as they passed by the robots noting their works.

That was when a convoy of three vehicles arrived at the FOBs, a humvee on the lead, two HEMTTs were seen arriving at the FOBs and fanning out into their assigned depots. "Well well well, it looks like we are about to have some treats. Hope it's not bones to chew on." Arminius stated sarcastically.

From within the humvee, Leandros was seen disembarking from the right hand side of the vehicle with a squad of robot bodyguards around him. "Lord Anubis has decided to appoint me as your Military Intelligence Liaison. I will be in charge of providing you with intel on developing situations on the battlefield." Leandros stated to Belisarius, bowing his head respectfully before snapping his fingers, letting the HEMTTs dropping their rear ramps, revealing supplies and meals for the robots.

These meals were packaged into what appeared to be plastic bags with zip ties on their top with information on the nutrients contained inside. They appeared to be a mashed and flavored meals ranging from porks, chickens, beefs or fish, tuna and others.

The nutrients provided to them were a mixture of Vitamins, Calcium, sugar, and others to help their body powered and active. In addition to the meals there were also canteen of distilled water for them to drink which would help explain their lack of hygienic needs.

Belisarius seeing the pasted up meals felt his mechanical stomach growl for a moment. Despite the loose requirement for actual food in their diet it was nice to see specially formulated food stuff ever so often as a meal. He looked over to Arminius. "While we are waiting for mortal approval we should probably eat, we can plan better without a hungry stomach hindering our thoughts." Belisarius said.

The mortal humans who could see the insides of the HEMTTs didn't yet see the purpose for the bags filled with the food substance. That was until the robots started to gather the bags themselves, and beang to open them up on programed knowledge. Even they themselves quickly remarked their method for eating was a lot like something they could remember. "This is the paste the Rex Units ate." One of them mentioned.

"Yeah. Now I'm feeling like one, except even more mechanical than before." Another remarked, feeling the poetic nature of the situation seeping into his mind as he ate the paste and chewed on the meal. Arminius was seen having a meal of tuna with Belisarius in the pack, as he ate, he noticed how the meal was apparently lacking something. "Could use some garum sauce. But otherwise a very well made meal." Said Arminius.

As they were eating, Leandros was seen staying on the roof of the humvee looking at the robots keeping tab on them all to make sure they were in good hands. He glanced back and forth scanning them at random before tapping his right ear dialling logistics back at his home base. "Bring in the trucks, resupply is needed for the battalion." He stated nonchalantly.

Back at the FOB of the Jackal Guards, the logistic trucks were seen leaving the base hauling supplies of weapons, ammo and equipment to the battalion of Belisarius, the trucks would soon arrive at the Orion's Sword FOB where they then let the robot to gather their weapons and equipment such as radio equipment, ECM Jammers at the company level and repair toolkits.

Beside their standard issued, they were also issued with various magnetically attached backpacks on their backs to carry their personal equipment, ammo, they were also issued with various add-ons in the form of tactical vests to carry additional ammo and other tools.

With the equipment now secure with them it was more clear that battle would be soon under way. Belisarius got some of his gear ready. All of the gear looked to be specifically for the Jackal Guards, but still able to be shared with the GDI's Chimera faction.

"Alright. We are nourished, Re-supplied. But we still have yet to prove proper cooperation between the two of our factions here." Belisarius said while he inspected the rifle in his hand.

"Yes, we need to show that they can trust us in future deployments, perhaps the little blue robot there can help. Leandros what's the word from Anubis?" Arminius asked causing Leandros to hop down from the humvee's roof and approached them. The robot Lucario was seen opening his palm up and projected a holographic topographical map of the Levants region with the names written in Latin for Belisarius and Arminius to read.

They first saw that their position was in Jerusalem with the frontline being pushed back along a broad front with some elements of the GDI were seen prodding into the Palestine Territories on the West Bank of the Jordan River. "Tactical and Strategic situation update: The Vipers have retreated and consolidated their defenses around a new defensive line called the 'Naga Loka line'. It is a defense in layer stretching from Tel-Aviv Yafo to Jericho."

Seeing the map Arminius stroke his chin, seeing this he felt that the enemies were buying for time and gambling that the Chimera would attack them and grind the casualty rate to unsustainable level. "So they're planning to fight a war of attrition with us so we would be exhausted from battle." Arminius mused on the matter seeing Leandros nodded his head before zooming the map into the West Bank area.

"Tactical Situation Update: The Jackal Guards BCT is to be deployed in Force Recon and Vanguard element into the West Bank, target is taking control of Route 60 bypassing strong points and flank around the defensive line." Leandros briefed them and highlighted Route 60 running through the region with enemy forces being divided into elements scattered about to garrison areas along the road.

Much of the information needed to be processed carefully by Belisarius since the highways itself was now layed out like a trap. The Vipers had made an almost convincing looking defence, but Belisarius saw some weakness within it. The road was defended well, but the Viper's didn't look to have much of a defensive work put up around the road. Each elements could be easily broken losing the Viper's full grip on the overall line.

Belisarius had his plan in mind and found a way to implement it with modern tactics and stratagems. "Alright. Recon mixed with some sabotage. They won't be keeping the road to themselves for very long." he stated with some confidence in his voice.

Belisarius would then use his fingers to interact with the holographic map zooming in and out with pinches. Fascinated by the interactiveness and how comfortable it was, he understood that technology has changed warfare dramatically but each time he interacts with the technology that enables these changes, he felt an odd tingling sense of curiosity and discovery.

Using his finger and claw like a stylus pen drawing phase lines on the highway measuring every 600m of the road as a phase lines to help navigation and coordination of the operation. He then proceeded to mark the phase lines using code names such as "Phase line Legio", "Phase line Equites", "Phase line Hastati", "Phase line Triarii".

Once he was done, the digital map displayed a message box "Are you sure you want to save the changes?" and he was presented with the options of "Yes" and "Cancel", to this he pressed the "Yes" button and saw the plan he drew up saved and forwarded to the officers in the battalion.

"Tactical plan has been forwarded to all relevant units, Operation Scimitar will begin in 2 days time. Recommend you train the troops for deployment." Said Leandros as he switched off the holographic map display on his palm.

[hr]

While planning for military operations would not escape his mind, Anubis knew that it was unbecoming of a family man, father or son, to disregard family matters. He and Set were taking a stroll around the streets of Jerusalem near the Jackal Guards's FOB with the two lost in discussions about personal matters, as they came by a playground Anubis seemed to stop and look over at the playground, seeing the sight of mothers and their children playing, trying to continue their lives under the occupation of foreign forces.

Set seeing this and knew that despite being a grown deity, Anubis's mental scar from his childhood would never go away. "To be honest… much of your misery can be directly attributed to me. I wasn't being a father when I was supposed to. And when I do want to be, you've grown and your childhood long gone." Set sighed out morosely looking at the sight of mortal families going about their lives. "The past is the past, you can not change it regardless of efforts." Anubis retorted tersely.

"True." The crimson red deity admitted and sighed out, he glanced down at his own body and hands, shiny red armor plates, synthetic muscles and sinews encased in protective armored plates. Under these encasings though he felt cold, and without a heart in him. There wasn't hate. It was just sorrow. Being there with what could have been presented to him.

Now though as he inspected himself again he still was reminded of his curse. He had all the signs of being synthetic. Even his vision was filled with numbers, lines of coding and various operations supposedly to aid him but rather it felt alienating to him to be a machine.

Much worse though he felt constantly alienated from others forced to watch pentagrams, and other unholy shapes fly past his vision. Some of it wasn't even from the nanites. Some of his vision was filled with something evil. Runes and odd marking his vision was creating.

It wasn't even the intricate fixated lines or angles the electronics produced. They were all crooked and jagged. Like blurry imperfect lines made from hand crafted writings. Beyond this though he could tell something more to him was just machine. Some type of other material was flowing in him.

The thought though of looking mostly mechanized still bothered him however. It "Look at us now Anubis, we're not even the same person we used to be. You're not even the pup I knew… but alas… who's to blame but myself." He rubbed his LED optics feeling how dry it was and without tears even in the form of mecha fluids causing him to feel both annoyed and anguished.

He however soon felt a comforting presence on his shoulder, a palm was gripping him, surprised and curious, he turned around to see that Anubis was holding him by his shoulders seemingly unwilling to let go.

"What was he like to you?" Anubis asked, to this Set knew the answer and leaned up against the wall. "More than just a son, pride and joy of my life. The first and most loved because he was the only." Set sat down and folded both his legs on each other's knees in a meditative stance and tapped his index fingers together. "I loved him… so much. When he died the world came to an end to me. Then you came...you were just like him at first glance, I couldn't bear to see it, the losses coming back to me. It was too traumatizing that I did harm on you. Forgive me…"

To his Anubis sighed out seemingly regretful of his previous transgression at Set, he slumped his head downward and felt weak and empty. "Was I too harsh and bias towards you?" He asked hesitantly. "No." Set shook his head to Anubis.

"You weren't. It was warranted as Wepwawet was outside of your knowledge then, if anything, you at least learned self-reliance and how to stand up for yourself. Anyway…" He then slowly came in, wrapping his arms around Anubis giving him a tender hug, patting him on his back as he pulled his son into his chest, feeling their metal biceps clanking against one another.

"You are my son, I haven't done enough for you." He uttered to Anubis, almost reminiscing his late wife Nephthys's last words to Anubis.

As he was hugging his estranged son, savoring the moment while it last as it was the first time he ever hold his son lovingly in his arms, they heard a digital ringing sound, a phone call of sort but this one was only audible to their cybernetic communication network. "Duty calls." Said Anubis as Set nodded before letting go of the robot Jackal deity.

Anubis tapped his right ear answering the call and saw that Leandros was calling him with a window on the upper left corner of his HUD showing Leandros calling in real time with an audio spectrum to record and analyze his voice for security authentication reason. "Go ahead Leandros, what's the situation?"

"My lord, you're expected at the J.O.C to brief relevant mortal personnel on the upcoming Operation Scimitar, conceptual plans have been formed now it requires your input to finalize the joint operation." Said Leandros, the robot Lucario forwarded files of the so-called "Operation Scimitar" showing him routes, objectives, forces involved, enemy dispositions and other related materials.

"Thank you Leandros, tell them I'll be there in 5." He then looked up at Set, feeling a sense of melancholy rushing over his body. "I have to go now father, you should go back to the FOB, maybe meet my son Charlie. He could spend time with his grandfather." Set nodded to Anubis, patting his shoulders and smiled to him albeit the armor faceplate made the effort seems a bit stiff. "I will son. Family sticks together, and… don't die alone out there. I can't bear to lose you like I lost Wepwawet."

[hr]

Not far from where they were, FOB Revolver was set up as a command center for the Allied Forces in the region with the GDI being the logistical support and Air support while Orion was providing the ground pounder in the form of their troops and mecha units.

Within the camp, the personnel who work and train there had a helipad for choppers to ferry in supplies for them on a daily basis with watch towers looking out on all four corners of the camp. Near the center of the camp was a tent with satellite dishes and relay acting as the command post of the FOB and by extension the rest of the related bases and outposts.

There Anubis was seen entering the tent with Leandros next to him, inside the tent was a gathering of GDI Brigadier General, the familiar Jason Grady, the Rangers leader Nicolas Williams and Orion's Field Commander Joe Marshall. "Alright is everyone here? Let's get started, we got a lot of high value targets we need to tackle." Jason stated before standing up from the table with a laptop connected to the projector showing them a map of the region with the Strategic situation being updated.

"Alright this is the situation so far." Said Grady as he showed them the frontline shifted back away from Jerusalem heading northward with pockets on the map showing areas that are under siege or remaining neutral in the fighting. The border areas of Israel-Syria of the Golan Heights along with that of Lebanon were drawn with overlapping strike marks to denote the contested areas.

"After taking Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv is appealing to the International Community to call a cease-fire into effect. But that won't happen anytime soon with the situation on the ground has been changing too fluidly for them they're at a blind." Jason stated before highlighting the known enemy disposition on the maps with the forces being concentrated to the north holding a defensive line.

"Our goal is to break the Tel-Aviv-Ariel defensive line, capture the head of the snakes and bring the Likud Party to justice. Intercepted Cables from within Tel-Aviv suggested that the IDF has been trying to run investigations into Vipers but are repeatedly blocked by the Likud Party in the Knesset. We're going in and blow that lid wide open. Reinforcements are on the way too, there are three Rex Units, Shiryu's kids coming to help us. They'll be landing to the North of Tel-Aviv to surround the city and us moving in from the South to link up." Jason would then highlighted the symbols of Rex Units with an "x3" above their box to denote the number of Rex Units.

"The triplets?" Joe asked with concern in his voice. Looking back at the holographic projection the amount of Rex Unit force the 3 combined could lead to one of two things that Joe was thinking about. "The three of them aren't going to sit well with Shiryu. Everyone has been cautious lately. Not sure how he would take to them fighting against another otherworldly threat." he leaned in looking at the holographic map and humming. "The second issue is yes they are nimble. One is. Three is overkill. They'll destroy the highway if they aren't being lithe. So they'll be under intense pressure here." Joe finished.

"Perhaps, I can be of assistance. They're expecting us to take the Defensive Line head on, but we should just press our Eastern advantage and push around them." Anubis stated as he then snapped his finger, this had Leandros projecting the tactical map of the area to them with the map zoomed in around Route 60 bypassing the Defensive Line completely.

"I believe that if we can take this Route with a mobile force, we can flank and encircle our enemies. This will bring the Defensive Line to a collapse while the Rex Units can stomp and destroy the retreating forces." Anubis finished with the map showing them holographic display of a simulated attack force.

This force was Anubis's battalion of Robot Wolves inhabited by Orion's Sword deceased troopers manning a mixture of Stryker ICVs, Humvees, MRAPs, IFVs and tanks supported by GDI gunships, fighter-bombers and Logistic convoy.

Without the Rex Units in the direct combat though it left route 60 well in tact still. Neither did it risk of damages to the road offering a pathway to take for the allied forces there. Though the rex Units would be of limited help. "That works. We won't be getting much use out of them while our units are fighting, but they'll still end up destroying a lot of scared Vipers. That is if they remember how to retreat. One issue though. How is the uncle going to react?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, good question there. Last I heard from my wiiii… I mean Hera is that he ran into something, an enemy mecha unit apparently one that's modeled after the I-Rex probably as a trauma tool against him." Said Jason with a concerned look on his face and he sighed out. "I can say that apparently whoever we're dealing with knew what psychological button to push and beat us back somehow if they can't beat us with conventional means." He finished worriedly before glancing to Nicolas. "At least he's been slowly talking and eating normally again now, but I advise caution when letting him go about."

Nicolas crossed his arms while assembling part of a round dark helmet on the table in front of him. He screwed in a could of screws on the blockier side of the helmet that looked like a radio receiver. He tapped it twice making a loud static hiss come out. "Alright that's done. Were you about to wed yourself to her again? I didn't hear that." he picked up the helmet and turned it around before pulling out another piece of it from a pack nearby him on the floor.

"Yeah he's not been doing well since that. I haven't gotten near him since he looks tense as guilty man in an interrogation room. Or in his case a guy being haunted by a tormenting ghost." He snapped a gas mask piece into the upper portion of the helmet. The overall shape of the mask was a bulky solid black metal dark gas mask with a breathing part in the front that was circular with 3 semi circle crescents moving around a smaller inner circle. The air intake portion on the side of the mask was also a circle, but with a different design. This one having an array of rounded triangular sections pointed inwards at a circular portion.

"Caution is well needed with him. I don't want to state the obvious but an emotionally disturbed godzillian is not someone you want to stand near. At least he has two friends to keep him some company. If he's eating his stomach is less upset by the facts. If he's talking he's got his courage back. I honestly hope he's the one this time to fight the bitch." Nicolas said adorning the helmet over him. The MFS unit shaped optics lit up red then. "Meantime i think I'm going to have to guide the Rex Units. Hera will end up saying 'I'm not being guided. I can take my own command.' or something." Nicolas replied.

"Fair enough, I guess my Brigade is the bait then to probe the defensive line and see what they have in mind. Alright then let's get busy and brief our boys. Good luck and Godspeed." Said Jason Grady as they all stood up and went out to their respective units with Anubis heading back to his Jackal Guards with Leandros walking closely with him.

"Perhaps it would be prudent to put the recruits through their paces?" Leandros asked Anubis as they walked on the streets of Jerusalem back to their camp. "Absolutely, have the Inquisitors ready. I will have to recall Belisarius and his battalion to base for training soon. They need all the refreshments they can get."

[hr]

Back in the Jackal Guards encampment of the city, Set by now was seen with Horus and Charlie, watching over his nephew and grandson having lunch in the place. He saw that Charlie was apparently young and his baby blue eyes seem to have a sort of uncertainty in him, a fear of the unknown and most importantly the overwhelmed mind of a young an thrust into something beyond his understanding in too fast of time.

"So how long have you been my patron… uh uncle Horus? Since I was born?" He asked Horus hesitantly trying to put up a smile to the Crown Prince. "Since the day you were born of course. I know you well as I act Anubis's bridge to you. I always want to hear you call me uncle, so I can then spoil you so hard that your father would want you back." Horus let out a hearty laugh of joy at Charlie as the avian deity hugged his nephew in. To this Charlie let out a slight giggle at the love his uncle displayed before his uncle gestured him towards Set, "So you must be Set right? I heard that you're… Anubis's father. So that makes you my grandfather right?" Charlie asked Set cautiously.

Set compared to Horus however was a different story. For once he tried to stay as less intimidating as possible, but the mask he wore combined with his red beaming eyes made this difficult. He slowly nodded his head though in a reluctant manner.

"By some form yes. Through the endlessness and separation of universes fate still had a place for you. I am. By technical traditional means you may not understand as of yet. Aside from this though I doubt I have much to offer you as grandfather." he rose his hands up to Charlie. In an instant the metal was corroded away revealing more fleshy, but almost dead looking blacked flesh held together by sinews. Some portions of long unhealthy unkempt fur were around while amist of red rose upwards.

He lowered them back down though and allowed the nanites to slowly reclaim what had been lost. "I defeated evil entities before. My job is to watch over mortal balancing the chaos of the universe. To make their lives have meaning. Yet after my victories over Apep, one god has managed. I know it's sickening to think. But I can't let this come over us at the task at hand. This curse has not inhibited me as of yet. But it hasn't gone through conflict with Apep's forces. This "Old Blood" has remained dormant so far." Set said looking to Charlie hunched over. "If you are disappointed I do not frown to this. But I can offer you some form of grand paternal offering. If you choose." Set said.

Charlie hearing this nodded to him, slowly confirming his words and apparently felt somewhat assured of Set's genuine promises to him. "Okay, I understand. If I need something I'll let you know. I could use a grandfather too, since I didn't have one."

At that point, Set would see Anubis return to the base with Leandros, the elder God of Chaos saw that Anubis was approaching them before he bowed his head respectfully to Set, which Leandros repeat the action perfectly towards him. "Father, I have a little thing I want to ask you with. There are recruits in the ranks, they could use some training so I thought if you would like to participate in training them up to standards." Anubis asked Set, intriguing him and enticing his interests.

The sign of respect towards him made him sigh and scoff at the same time in a long outwards breath while he tapped Anubis's shoulder with his hand leaning down. "These are your soldiers though. I am not equipped to train them directly. Not without harming them at least." Set said raising his hand up again.

At first the armor on his hand stayed as normal, but it soon started to fade to black peeling away at the red, and then bleeding a deep red colored over hsi hand that quickly misted upwards in a red fog. The flesh of his arm revealed with synthetic chords mixing between pale red looking flesh that was degraded.

Agin it degrades as before with good detail of synthetic wires made from rubbery looking substances and pale red flesh mixed an intertwined. He fixed it then back to normal letting the old blood in him become relieved. "I can do one thing however to make the powers subside temporarily to at least teach them the proper strategies." he said with a reluctant tone.

Anubis nodded to this as he helped Set walked with him, in the process Anubis led Set to a group of robots with their head pieces being modeled similar to Set, albeit much more intimidating in appearance.

They appear to be somewhat skeletal in appearance with armor plates emphasizing a chiseled appearance and physique similar to the warriors of classical mythologies. They each appear to have a tan cape pinned to their shoulders by a gold button with the Eye of Horus symbol on the button. Each one was carrying with them a high tech looking Was Scepter a symbol of authority of the Gods in the presence of mortals.

"Ah, Set Sutekh, God of Chaos and Desert. We are at your service." The Inquisitor robots bowed before Set, kneeling on the ground before him and Anubis with their right hands planted on their hearts. "We are the Inquisitors, we protect the lessers of our army from threats beyond their capabilities. And to train them to think outside the box." Said one of the Inquisitor robots.

"At ease" Set told them grumbling. Anubis heard a clicking sound coming from where set was standing. He saw the armored plate of Set's leg opening. Unlike the other synthetic beings it appeared to twitch as it opened up in jolting shaking motions back and forth.

A stand of pinkish goo hung from the bottom of the rising plate to the inside of the thigh at one end. It dripped a bit creating a red color. The rest of it was also filling with a mix of flesh and wires intertwined. Rotten dark flesh of coure with hints of a black colored skin. He took out a thoroughly black colored bag.

Within it though he took out a vial of water, A jar of pink colored salts, wicks of lavender, a jar that glew a dark yellow color, A golden glowing flask, some green colored herbs, and finally some garlic that he arranged around him. "I guess I am now committed to this task. IT will try and prevent another army from learning my skills. I will have to subdue its power." Set said. Anubis though recognized the scent form the bag of another ally of his. The allied undead faction.

"Regardless what it does, that curse must leave. I'll have to contact them again for help getting rid of it completely." Said Anubis as he then patted Set's shoulder and led him along with the Inquisitors into what appeared to be a simulation field, an area out in the open cordoned off by barriers erected by the Inquisitors and the laborers.

On one side of the field there was Belisarius, accompanied by Arminius and the battalion of Robot Wolves. On the other end was Set and the Inquisitors. The simulation field would then warp, leaving them without a way to explain how exactly does it work but they can see that the setting they were in appeared to be that of a highway in the desert with various hills and settlements along the road. The hillside settlements appeared to be suburban areas almost like American suburbs with roads criss-crossing around the settlements.

"We are simulated military hierarchy of the enemies, each one of us act as an officer of the enemy ranks, and with you as the head of the force. We also add and remove various X-factors on the battlefield at a moment's notice. Don't hold back, Lord Set Sutekh." One of the Inquisitor robot stated and bowed his head down respectfully to Set before raising it back up.

Set nodded to the inquisitor. "For your sake I hope I can resist the urges to act maliciously." Set said. He knelt down on his knees breathing in and out. He took the vial of water and lifted it up letting the clear liquid within sake a bit. A small gurgle came from within Set's body while some of his armor plates on his body began to shift and lift. "It already knows." Set said.

He paused for a moment watching his own body pausing for a moment. The glowing of his optics narrowed as he held still. No sounds came from his body, and no rejection was made anywhere. Just an uneasy silence.

Set then flung his hand forwards grabbing on the top of the vial and pulling off its lid. Quickly he splashed the water onto his neck, and upper chest. As soon as it hit his armored plates the water corroded into his armor singing and burning at it like acid coursing down to his flesh and casing it to burn. Something made a pain filled howling moan that sounded inhuman. Like an animal howling before making a feral dismembered growl. Set's body quivered and shook twitching and convulsing with pain. He spoke through the pain though. "Holy water. The same will happen with the garlic they said." Set said in a low raspy tone.

He then assembled the garlic around his neck wrapping it around like a necklace. It singing and burned against his flesh making it steam a little. Another revolting moan was heard quivering out from Set as he tossed around. His hands reached for the necklace attempting to pull it away as the whole of his body reverted from a robotic form to his body converting the metal into black colored flesh. He breathed in and out through long pan filled breaths as he stood back up. "Carry the other items I could need them if its resistance is to strong against me."

Anubis nodded to Set and proceeded to hold his various items needed to keep the Old Blood at bay and assist Set whenever he needs it. If only he had the benefit of hindsight, he thought.

Over by the Orion robot wolves, they were standing in packs of about 4 to 5 members with their vehicles ranging from Humvees, Stryker ICVs with different variants, Spartan Howitzers, M5A2 main battle tank.

They were fielded with standard issued weapons depending on their roles in a squad or fireteam. The robots saw that their bullpup assault rifles had a rather odd Sci-Fi design with laser sight to help their targeting cursor land on the right target.

Those who are marksmen had a longer barrel with more powerful penetration marksman rifle, the snipers carried on their back a more conventional M82A1 Barrett anti material rifle to pierce both organic targets and vehicles. Grenadiers in turn found their assault rifles to have an underslung grenade launcher, amongst the ammo types for it, they found that the weapon can fire off sticky mines from a safe distance.

Set followed the inquisitors, but already showed he was going to do things the more traditional way. He extended his hands outwards and out stretched his fingers opening his hands. Simulated dust and sand came to his hands while the Old Blood within him circled around the sand, and finally much darker greyed out Nanites poured out from his wrists. This all mixed together forming a very intricate looking khopesh in his right hand and in his left a sickle.

"And so the game begins…" One of the Inquisitors stated ominously as he watched the sight of the Khopesh being formed and the simulation commences. On the other end of the simulated battlespace, the robot wolves of Orion troopers were now given their objectives and waypoints.

The scout teams fanned out, walking slowly and methodically looking for targets. Belisarius and Arminius can see that the robots were still trying to get comfortable with their body and mechanical features as they moved about, making some awkward stumbles and slow cautious pacing as they tried to control their legs properly.

The robot named Evan stopped once his squad reached a sand berm near a hillside settlement, he placed the backpack he had on the ground, and saw the backpack unfold to release a robot falcon, "Here we go, launching UAV." He said, the robot falcon then flapped its wings, taking off quickly and glide around in the air to survey the battlefield for targets.

His fellow robots would then see that on their HUDs, the camera feed from the robot falcon showed them that there were Viper fighters nearby, just 500 meters away from their current positions armed with RPG-42 Alamut, Russian made 9M133 Kornet-EM ATGM set up on a rooftop overlooking the highway. Around the suspected building there were various lower ranking insurgents and their technical pickup truck with mounted ZU-23 turret.

Set looking at this groaned. "I hunger… No. Keep track of them. I can see them. They've made their opening move… let's make it as real as possible." Set commanded. He gestured the Inquisitors to make the simulated OPFOR warriors patrol their areas.

One of the Inquisitor moved his fingers gently in a stroke like manner, almost like he was drawing or commanding telepathically. This triggered the insurgents and patrols of Vipers to move around and hide inside the bushes and trees or garrison buildings.

The robot wolves would then begin to make their approach slowly and cautiously before ducking down, Evan heard a bullet snapping the twigs and tree branches around him as his squad crouched down and open fired on the dug in enemies.

Evan was carrying a more standard variant of the AR-68 Annihilator with laser dot to aid his aiming, he aimed down the sight of the gun to get a more accurate shot out with his onboard ballistic software calculated the distance, projectile velocity and other factors such as wind and natural conditions and penetration power, he then squeezed out a three round burst at the target, knocking down an Viper RPG gunner on the rooftop.

"Whoa, did I just? Oh well at least I know I won't miss much." Said Evans in surprised at his own ability to land a precise shot as he then followed his teammates forward to the nearby building. In front of him was a robot named CLU-09734 taking point as the Automatic Rifleman packing the LMG variant of their AR-68 Annihilator with a backpack and belt feeding bullets directly to his weapon's receiver and chamber.

Set however on his lines felt the death of the soldier. He quickly moved himself forwards feeling a battle ready sting drive him. "I could feel one pasing. Stay sharp Vipers." Set commanded. He looked over to where that soldier's death had come from. Listening to the winds and feeling of death on the battlefield.

The jackal teams however felt him taunt them through their heads. Accompanied by an image of his mask painted onto their huds. "I can feel your approach. This battle grows hotter. Slowly we are moving towards assured combat." Set taunted. He glanced over towards the the incoming inquisitors and made his own attack. With his khpeshin hand he flung a wave of red colored energy towards the group. The wave crashed into the ground and exploded making the dirt around them pulverize and form into a dust cloud that stung their bodies. "Step up the intensity."

"As you wish my lord." The Inquisitor grinned as he snapped he then manipulate the simulated Viper warriors to begin going about using unconventional tactics against their foes. As the Robots began to come up close, the Vipers appear to be surrendering at first, dressing as civilians to hide their allegiance. But they would then quickly detonate suicide vests underneath to take the robot with them.

Others simply fight on, retreat when they see robots coming up close, pivot around and return fire with their teammates shooting airburst automatic grenade launchers at the robot teams.

While then the vehicles on the highway began to fan out, laying down suppressive fire at dug in emplacements while the robots sprint forward and power jumped into the air making their vertical entry from the roof while others smashed in through the front gate.

"All Vipers, Combat Recon detachments of the enemies are fully engaged expect increased pressure." The Inquisitor warned their troops as they continued fighting. They soon deployed various Stealth tanks and flame tanks to skirt around the main convoy and fire missiles on lone vehicles and burn out the nearby warriors to keep them away from their Phase line objectives.

Set saw the tanks and growled with a fit of anger. Set drool formed out from under his mask. He swiped his arms back and forth and claws at the air with rage. "Pull back now. Regroup in the core of the building!" Set commanded. His skin slowly became way more filled with detached sines and stretches in its structure. Longer threat of hairs rew from his arms and legs while he held back the feeling of an intense battle getting at him.

The harassing attack was soon forced to call off, retreated to keep the Jackal Guards on the edge and imbalance with their advances spoiled. Soon enough, the Inquisitors and Set could see that Belisarius was ordering his tanks and some handful of IFVs to take up positions on sand dunes, berms and survey the battlespace.

Whenever they saw a cloud of dust being kicked up, they zeroed in on that coordinate and open fired their main gun, leaving a smouldering wreck of Stealth tank and flame tanks. While then the Vipers in turn begin to order incoming barrages of artillery on the Jackals, keeping them off balance and forcing Belisarius to play conservatively and not to risk his troops into killzones.

Evan kept himself low when he saw the incoming barrages of enemy howitzers screaming down on them, he could recognize the sound as their 2S35 double barreled Koalitsiya Howitzers from his time in Orion Sword, he and CLU-09734 were hiding inside a trench waiting for the barrage to end.

He however began to see hot red waves of energy begin to pierce through the dust. Set using concentrated rays of red energy firing through the dust he continuously kicked up for the Inquisitors. More smoke and soot was gathered and created into and by him as it spun around. "Fair play Inquisitors. See how well you fare against me.. Murgh…" Set grunted while he twirled his khopesh blade around in a circle. It began to glow a red color that crackled in a red colored flame.

He swung his arm upwards then and unleashed the flame ball in an arch. It circled above the inquisitors before flying downwards striking one of them at random tracing the steps of the robot. Instantly though its mind was in shambles as the inquisitor started to fire in random direction inflicted with chaos.

The other Inquisitors thought grunted in surprise seeing this, it was not out of their expectation for Set to suddenly strike out and maim an Inquisitor during the exercise but the way Set went at it made them rather unnerved by his actions.

"That was unnecessary. But very well… if it is what you wish." Said one of the Inquisitor feeling a bit unnerved by Set's mannerism as they continued the exercise while the simulated Vipers scramble to try and hold back the Jackal Guards.

On the battlefield Set and the Inquisitors would see that the robot wolves had made it to their first Phase line, he heard Anubis punched the clock marking the first notable objective achieved within the span of 15 minutes. For this, they were rewarded with reinforcements coming in from the rear, more robot wolves were bussed in using Stryker ICVs and Humvees along with additional tanks and howitzers to level the playing field.

Set scoffed to this. Part of him saw how efficient the Inquisitors were against the simulated Vipers. Something in him changed noting the Vipers performance and slowly he relaxed. A calm more subtle guillaume form set as part of his armor began to reappear on his body.

"They are good at this. Need to test their abilities then against how more powerful more war driven adversary then…" he said watching and calculating. He let the situation go about its business but clanked his khopesh and sickle together. A bright white spark flashed between. The vipers on the battlefield however felt this as an aggression boost. Not just that their battle and war drive seemed to be ramped up. "Increasing aggression. Now you peaked my interests." Set said.

This would then manifest in the Vipers behaviors being more violent, fanatical almost zealot like with a heightened sense of blood lust, as the robot wolves moved closer to the hillside suburbs, they found that the Vipers were busy firing off various rockets and ATGMs at the robots to keep them back.

Aerial surveillance from the robot falcons also show that the enemies were rigging the houses to blow up once breaching start, obviously intending to kill both attackers and civilian hostages left inside. In response, the robots fired off smoke shells from their howitzers, blinding the enemies to their advances and then moved up slowly, clearing out one building at a time.

They cordoned off areas and deployed ECM Jammers to prevent radio control detonation of the explosives while EOD teams from Combat Engineer platoon race to disarm the explosives.

Once the exercise reach its 30 minutes timer mark, Anubis raised his hand up, declaring an end to it as the field dissolved revealing that they were still in Jerusalem and the open field there had not been scarred by anything other than simulated weaponry and advanced holographic projections. "30 minutes, two phase lines reached. 3 wounded and 4 KIAs. That is the initial phase of combat that you will see." Anubis stated to the robots as he walked amongst them looking at their faces.

In the back Set Set ran over to Anubis and took the dark yellow colored vial. He shook the substance around and gave it a very clearly angry expression. In response to seemingly both stimuli from Set the substance turned from a yellow to a glow stick colored green that illuminated the whole glass making it glow a near neon green. On the side of the glass was a syringe Set used to poke through the top of the coke grabbing a sample of it. He then injected the chemical into his body.

At first he rejected it feeling as it burns run through his body. But Anubis could hear Set's heart thumb causing him to make a pained jolt. The old blood within him relaxed it seems. It it was subdued for the time being since Set's body returned to a more normal looking robotic state. He huffed out and put both object away for later.

Anubis would then hold Set up with his right arm dangling around Anubis's shoulder with his left hand holding Set by his abdomen and walked him to the command tent for him to rest. "Come on, I think you've helped enough, let's give you some rest." He then glanced back at the robot and gestured for them to dismiss. "The rest of you, take some rest, resume training tomorrow before deployment." He ordered.

The robot wolves would then be led by the Inquisitors back to their barracks where they found that there wasn't any beds for them. In fact all they had were charge pads to stand on like action figures. Evan and other robots stood on their individual pads, not sure with what's going to happen next to them.

That was when they felt tendrils latching up their tail hole, surging through their anal cavity stretching it to pump energy into them, charging them up while they felt orgasm in the process. "Whoa hey! Am I supposed to like this or hate this? What do you think uh… CLU-09734?" Evan asked the robot wolf next to him.

CLU-09734 looked over at Evan and gave a minor shrug. "Orders are set for us. I don't find this any pleasurable than I should, or sexualy gratifying. I do feel a minor tingle going on though." the Inquisitor said easing back and closing his eyes in a calm meditative pose.

"If you say so, but this is really awkward for me. God I can feel my cock getting a hard on." Said Evan as he soon let out a moan and pant, he stuck out his tongue and let the euphoria flowed through his body and brains. For the robot wolf battalion, they would rest for now before the training resume the next day, they at least would be ready for combat but not well equipped for the strange lifestyle they found themselves in.


	14. Chapter 14: Dancing with wolves

Chapter 14: Dancing with wolves

Ramat David Air Force Base, Israel

The tension was growing, not from without but from within. Balthazar sat by his desk with his colleagues Jasper and Casper all glaring at one another. Their meeting took place inside a secured building of the Air Force Base, concrete and steel reinforced by bulletproof glass and guarded by constant patrols and military vehicles scanning the area for intruders.

The room had a large wooden table with pristine dark mattel covering the edge of the table with the trio of councilmen sat at the edge of the table glaring at one another with rage fuming out of their eyes. Distrust and hatred were clearly written on their faces with them going back and forth at one another scowling.

"It's all your fault!" Jasper went first against Balthazar shouting out from his Gothic metal helmet at his fellow councilman before following his accusation with a fiery snarl. "Did you have your fun Balthazar? Jerusalem was a disaster! IRREPARABLE DISASTER! If only you had better command of your troops and refrain from using your fart bombs maybe we can still cling on to some witless moron donating his body to us and bite a bullet or two!"

Balthazar stood up and fired back at Jasper pointing his index finger first at Jasper then at Casper with fury seething out at them. "I did what I could to hold back those damn mutts from the Holy City while you boys evacuate the sacred artifacts of King David and our Ancestors. If only Casper's fancy tin-can could have worked like intended to bury those dogs, we would still be holding Jerusalem!"

"My ingenious creation is not to blame for YOUR failure! You played your hand too hard with your toxin and now look what the Americans are doing, they're bombing us and shutting down the northern borders thanks to you!" Casper shouted back, standing up from his seat and started to jump into a fist fight with Balthazar.

As they quarrel amongst themselves, Jasper sat out and crossed his arms, finding them to be immensely painful to watch and equally unbearable as himself, but to have the two of them around would at least make him less obnoxious if that was a blessing in some forms. "Tsk-tsk. Three Cobra Commanders squabbling amongst each other like children hogging a swingset." Said a feminine synthetic voice from the corner of the room with Jasper groaned hearing this and turned his head to face her. "Is there anything else you would like to add?" He asked.

"Indeed, the big man is getting tired of your failings. If you don't offer proof of your usefulness, then Vipers will have a… corporate takeover. Starring me!" Alice slithered out of the dark corner of the room, revealing herself to be a robot naga with her cobra hood extended out menacingly.

Jasper crossed his arms before her and sighed out, he then rubbed his visor before facing her. "So I've heard. Spare me the details already, if these two imbeciles won't pull their shits together, then I might as well be tied to their punishments. Seeing that I am their senior." Said Jasper.

Alice chuckled to him and stroke his chin teasingly with her index finger as he stood stoically before her. "Then I shall, I'll lend you my quartet of secret weapons. The Grim Team, they will be your Ace in the hold when things go wrong. Deal?" Jasper sighed out to her, he wasn't at all moved by this offering knowing deals like this would have strings attached. "High tech weaponry is no substitute for soldier's mind. But I shall take this offer with caution." He then glared back at the two fuming councilmen of Vipers.

"The two of you can fight all you want. I'll go out and stop those mutts myself. And when I return, I will find the Ark of Covenant myself even if I have to rip it from your hands AND the ghost of that dog god!" Jasper frowned and marched out of the meeting room they were having, slamming the door shut tightly with Alice slithering along with him. 

Behind him however, Balthazar was fuming with rage at Jasper's aggressive beratement of him, Casper too was feeling especially miffed by the senior member of the Council. "Jasper will get rid of us when he's done with those tin-can mutts. He'll pin us both for the string of failures on the fields." Said Balthazar with a half crazed tone to Casper who in turn huffed out at him. "Why should I believe your words you mad scientist? It was you who botched the defense of Jerusalem in the first place." Casper remarked.

"That I did and I won't deny it. But it was of course because of your untested Jaeger to blame as well. Regardless, it wouldn't be too far outside the realm of possibilities for Jasper to get rid of us and restructure Viper to his liking." Balthazar retorted, holding his fists up at Casper, intimidating the so called "Nerd" of the Vipers council. "You can't threaten me you deranged maniac! The next time I lend you one of my creation you will thank me!" Casper claimed boldly to Balthazar.

"Think about it Casper, what if Jasper changes his mind with you later on? What if he decides that you'll be not worth his blessings? Better be ready with your own exit strategy than die at his gun later on." Balthazar grumbled to Casper as the two maintained their aggressive glares at one another as they continued their bilateral debate.

[hr]

June 13th, 2034

North of Jerusalem, Route 60

The time had come for Operation Scimitar to kick off and this couldn't have come at a better time. As far as the Chimera knows, the world at large could not do anything to stop the conflict immediately, ceasefire agreement would drag out longer and longer than their enemies would like and they were having an advantage over them.

The Chimera troops were being assembled for their push northward with the GDI section being consisted of M5A2 Schwarzkopf MBTs supported by M118 Fastback IFVs, M320 Spartan Howitzers, AH-88 Blackfoot gunships that were also used by Orion for ease of logistics and maintenance.

The Orion sector to the East had the same armament but were supported by their supernatural allies and to them, it felt oddly reassuring when they were blessed by a God who fought on the frontlines and lead in person.

In the Jackal Guards's FOB, the troops stationed there were now being busy at work going over maintenance of their combat vehicles and fleet of transports. The company clerks were busy accounting for ammo supplies and various other important items such as nourishments and spare parts for robots.

Some of the more sci-fi like HEMTTs were having their truck beds being refitted with extendable RV houses and other equipment for complex machine maintenance and repair of damaged robots. Other HEMTTs and VTOL transports were seen with Hecatonchires attached to their undercarriage or tied to the truck bed.

Within the barracks, the robot wolves were sleeping still with their bodies being put into standby mode as their consciousness slept peacefully. Belisarius and Arminius were kept in the same barracks as the rank and file soldiers of their battalion. All of them had a cable latched into their tail hole, surging deep into their body and connecting to their built in power plants to maintain energy supply and regulating body heat.

As they slept, industrial robot arms were seen going about spraying climate appropriate camouflage pattern on their bodies. Removing the earlier digital grey and pixel ACU pattern and applied a more standard Crye Precision multicam pattern. With earthen brown and green with pixel patterns to help them blend into various terrains while maintaining a consistent level of camouflage effectiveness.

For the the robots who were Orion Sword soldiers in their past life, each of them had an Orion Sword symbol painted on their shoulder plates and their serial code numbers and ranks on their chest plate. Once the spraying was finished, each of them felt their minds coming to life and their bodies powering up as very intense tingling sensations jolted up to their cybernetic brains.

Their optics flashed to life and their HUDs booted up as they saw themselves in their new camouflage pattern, they can move their heads around to take a look at first before finally feeling their arms and legs moved about as they can see the Orion Sword symbol painted on their shoulder plates.

The camouflage patterns wrapped over their armors contouring and wrapping around their robotic anatomy fitting to their forms perfectly. A literal forest of colors painted onto them making them each appear much more natural in color using elements of nature as their disguises spitting them in dull looking colors from greys, yellows, and sandy tan colors.

All of the robots there twisted their arms around in circles moving them back and forth enjoying their fresh new appearance. It was all perks to them. No Robot had the same exact pattern on them as the patterns varied in shape and color at some portions. It wasn't much, and the changes were minor, but it gave them some type of distinct feature from one another. While also ensuring they stay hidden away from their enemies.

Arminius yawned out and stretched himself in the process as he twist his arms and thighs looking down at himself, he widened his eyes and raised a mental brow at the camouflage pattern finding himself to be like a literal walking flora carpet. "This is to keep us hidden no matter where we go? I look like a carpet with grass and flowers painted on it. Not that I'm complaining." Said Arminius in an awkward tone as he looked over his shoulder to glance down his back and tail.

The door of the barracks slide open letting the robots outside to see that dawn was on the horizon and their army was preparing to move out. The robots saw that they had their waypoints set to the armory to receive their weapons mods and equipment. They would then have to pick up their individual weapons from the racks in the barracks before moving out in lines to receive their mods.

One of the CLU units there called "CLU-1289" saw the dawn of the day shining through an advanced looking glass panel also telling them it was time for a real battle. One to really test what they have learn. CLU-1289 stepped off from where he was going down a patch of stairs to the floor before pivoting himself right heading towards the armory to load up. He didn't need to look for it long since he followed his HUD's directions completely while the rest of the robot got off of their own platforms with 1289 leading their way.

With the robots following one another footsteps without a thought, they arrived at the armory to receive their various weapon mods, these were unique magnetic scopes with varying zoom levels ranging from x1.5 to x3. This allowed them to see through solid objects like an X-Ray vision for advanced aiming.

The other mod being an alternative ammo type for their weapons. Other than the standard issued FMJs with DU rounds, they also received the simpler incendiary bullets to ignite their enemies. As they receive these mods, the rank and file robots were given a battle dress wrapped around their torso section with the front having sockets and pockets for their ammo and magazines. On the back, it had canvas pockets to carry their equipment, backpack and other external equipment that were not included inside their bodies.

Arminius himself was given a radio telephone for communication in the field on his back and an antenna bent forward over his shoulder. He looked down and inspected his tactical vest and smiled approvingly at it noticing how it didn't feel obstructive of his body functions or his built in weaponry. "This seems rather impressive, the additional ammo load is most welcomed beside the utility belt I already have." Said Arminius.

A similar vest was wrapped around Belisarius's body as he was loaded up. He however was loaded with a different array of items. A much smaller radio for one about the size of a satellite phone or walky talky in a black color.

A row of grenades on the left side of the vest, a row of flash bangs below this, an experimental explosive device being produced by the Chimera he received that was shaped like a disk, a combat laser knife that was still "sheathed" with the handle sticking into a sheath, ammo, and pouches filled with other gadgets.

The Disk though had a flat look to it. The center of the disk had a dark grey circle detailed with dark grey pels down it that all continued to run long the surface of the device all the way to the perimeters. On the outside though there was a silver colored 9 outer circle wrapping over the smaller darker circle. For cyber details were on the disk device, but a red colored line with a blue line next to it glew.

CLU-1289 scanned over the device not recognizing it as somthing produced by the Jackal Guards. "Foreign device detected on Belisarius. Scanning, but can you elaborate the purpose of the device please?" 1289 asked.

"Disk-grenade. That was as simple as it was described to me. Simple throw it and let it glide much farther than standard grenades. There was one other detail. When flying it creates a blade around its sides that jagged enough to stick into any surfaces it hits including enemy soldiers." Belisarius said.

"A Disk Grenade? Man this looks like a flying frisbee of death there. Hope I won't chase it on instincts." Said Evans as he looked at the device feeling rather weirded out seeing the shape of the device being unlike the usual designs of grenades that he was trained to use.

As they were preparing to move out, they noticed Leandros and Charlie walking up to Belisarius and Arminius with Charlie and Leandros crossing their right arms over their hearts and bowed their heads briefly to the two commanding officers of the Battalion before raising their heads.

"I will be relaying intel to you as the situation develops. As Anubis ordered." Said Leandros. "I'll accompanying you as a Scout, seeing that you can always use an eye on the ground." Said Charlie as Arminius smiled to him and patted his shoulder before petting his head.

"It's an honor to have you along Charlie. It's not easy being the son of Anubis I can see, but stick with us and you'll do him proud like Legionaires to Rome." Said Arminius as he hugged Charlie in, patting his back like an uncle, prompting Charlie to do the same to him and Belisarius.

The battalion would then begin to mount up on their vehicles and move out with Arminius, Belisarius and Leandros being inside a Humvee with antenna to command and coordinate multiple elements of the Battalion being an HQ unit.

Other robots were manning tanks, Stryker vehicles, Humvees and HEMTTs, for Charlie he was stored inside an HEMTT with a number of CLUs, amongst them were CLU-09734 and CLU-01289 sharing the robot rack with him as the vehicle's hexagonal shaped pod that carries 18 robots each closed its hatches sealing them inside and began to roll off.

In the air, their rotary aircrafts took off and flew off flying ahead of them to scout out the terrain as they left Jerusalem heading Eastward along Route 60. As they head out, Jason Grady was gearing up to leave with his Brigade heading northward as he held a radio in hand to speak to Hera.

"Hey uh Hera, listen I think I'll need you your help here to tell Jr something. Shiryu's kids are coming to join the fight, and uh you know Jr is their uncle, I need you to let him know about them coming first so he would know where to find them and keep an eye on them. Then, you uh… stick to Route 60 and keep watch on those robots. Good luck." Said Jason over the radio to Hera.

She timed Jason's call, and noted not how quick he was to get off. Taking this into account and his awkward demeanor on the radio she for herself saw he was still lovestruck by her. She made a small sarcastic giggle with an amused smile painted on her face. "Didn't even remember to say goodbye first." She said with her usual seductive tone.

She then moved her way to locate Jr. She was her own natural size for now, but given the mission it was more necessary now than it had been before. It was the best way to confront another kaiju, and for Jr's sake the best way to speak with him.

She reach down inform of her his and intertwined each of her fingers. She then entered her arms and stretched them both out in front of her making some small clicking sounds getting her joints all cracked. "Alright now it's time for counseling, some shocks, and possible emotion coming for this big guy. Time to become the biggest shoulder to cry on with a punch." She said examining pictures of the mecha I-Rex in her hud. She scoffed a bit seeing them and felt some visible unease seeing the cyberganic metal beast. "Man he has been wed to one ugly bitch." Hera said to herself.

Meanwhile Jr was sitting on the outside of the base with Rodan and Anguirus. Jr for now was sitting down with his legs cross under him eating something.

It looked like a large furry mammal that was about he size of his hand that fit in. It was rodent like with 4 scrawny legs that were pink in coloration. Its messy fur was now well covered in blood. Whatever mutant prey he had caught it was quickly gone devoured by him. His appetite was back, but so too was something else.

Liking the blood off of his lips tasting its metallic flavour he let off an annoyed groan while he felt his head tingle. Due to the situation it was giving him a bit of a headache as he held his head. "Hey guys… What the hell I can feel Shiryu's kids through that tingly thing." Jr said as he used his right hand to grasp around his head. It didn't help the feeling go away only making him feel more anxious about feeling their presence.

"We talked about it it's called a psychic bond. You have to get used to it." Anguirus said as he passed Jr a massive round prickly fruit of the red color. "You have to eat to keep your strength up kid. If you want to kick that thing's ass." Anguirus said.

"Yeah focus Jr because I really don't want you distracted. Especially while WE'RE fighting this thing. Because then it means I have to serve bait while you get your shit together mayn. Get your shit together I don't want this thing to touch me as well! Come on I don't want to die while i'm being raped! I wanted to die at a good middle age in a river of lava. Lava Jr not between some horny kaiju legs!" Rodan said while Jr looked over to him slightly irated.

"Just calm down. I don't want anything to happen to you either Rody. I don't know how I'll react to seeing her again. I want to put it away before something worse goes on and she's back again in the future somehow." Jr stated.

"Right. Thats been happening a lot as well innit? How much you wanna bet these guy come back to fight us again?" Rodan asked with a frown.

"They come back again though we aren't going in alone with just the three of us. Best bring the whole family right kid?" Anguirus asked.

Jr made a slow nod and then looked down. "Right… I should be with Godzuko now anyways. Not here. God I hope that's not him I'm feeling. It doesn't feel like him though i swear it feel like Zill, Chrissy, and Maqui." Jr said.

He looked over to his left though feeling Hera's footstep reach him. She snapped a finger to him and sighed in a quick breath of air. "Jr promise you'll keep your current calm and not become hot headed. To put it shortly your nephews and niece are coming over to help us. Now is the part you keep my-"

"They are what? Why I thought we had everything under control. You haven't even done anything here yet, and you keep franting more with something else. Are you going to mention her to me?..." Jr grumbled.

"Well it's not as bad as a reaction than I thought since I thought you were going to burst into tears. And I would have to apply Tender Loving Care only an aunt can give." She teased.

"Why do you keep acting. No. And I'm done crying about this. I have a feeling this won't be the last I'll see of her. I'm going to talk to the kids when they get here. Just do something this time. As a kaiju. None of this shrink ray crap its weird. You're weird. You're being weird." Jr stated.

"Well alright, but first word of advice here, stick to the road and keep to the sides. Otherwise you would crush all those squishy tender humans who are dying to marry me. I hate to lose my human fanclub." Hera stretched her finger outward pointing to the north for Jr, Rodan and Angy to see. The trio would see that there was a long line of Chimera vehicles following the highways and other dirt roads heading northward towards Tel-Aviv.

[hr]

Route 60, outside of Ofra

The 1st Battalion, 5th Jackal Guards Brigade or Task Force 1-5 as they were called, was now approaching the outskirt of the Ofra settlement as they moved along the highway. Once they had come close enough, the trucks carrying the robots stopped and fanned out on either sides of the Highway.

The HEMTTs with hexagonal shaped enclosed racks and shelves opened up and released the shoulder clamps to let the robots to disembark their transports.

Charlie hopped off his rack like the other with his weapons cocked and ready, he sprinted forward with his teammates of CLU-09734 and CLU-01289 and other robots before they all dolphin dived to the ground and crawled up to a sand berm looking at the settlement in front.

Charlie crawled up first, acting as the marksman with his semi auto ADMR-10 bullpup marksman rifle with 7.62x51mm rounds loaded. He deployed the bipod of the weapon and rested it on the sand dune and scanned the small town up ahead where he saw rectangular apartment blocks and several smaller houses around the apartments.

"Scanning for threats now. Too quiet around here. I have a bad feeling about this." He grumbled as he held his finger on the trigger before stopping his observation locating what appeared to be an ATGM system. "Got an eggshell with hammer here." He said, his sighting quickly marked the ATGM threat highlighting it on everyone's HUDs allowing them to see what he saw.

The ATGM system was very well concealed within the mix of city and desert. All around the city were large curling and dunes and hills that rose upwards to height that made them appear as large obstacles. The route itself flowed with the land around it. Going between the crease of each hill like a winding snake or river slinking through the landscape flowing with the land.

Belisarius moved his binoculars away from his face watching the widening land and nodded. "It's why we were sent in. We are to take it out. I would say the kaiju are not needed here for this task. Not until this escalates. Commence operation now." Belisarius ordered. Immediately upon hearing his orders, small Scout Teams of 5 began to make their ways up closer to the settlement.

They kept low by crouching down or crawl on the sand reaching up the sand berms and rest their weapons on the top edge of the berms. They looked through the optics and saw their targets either hiding in bunkers or patrolling the rooftops of apartments.

At the rear of the line, the robots were busy setting up their mortar sections with 120mm mortar tubes at the ready with the mortar teams correcting their shots, the firing computers helped dial in exact coordinates and sighting of enemies along with the time to fire for optimal strike success against their enemies.

As the assault commences, Charlie pulled the trigger of his weapon blowing a hole through the gunner of the ATGM, he saw the gunner's body being splattered to pieces by his bullet's incredible power with blood painting the ATGM system and the fellow operators of the system leaving them panic.

The ensuing battle would see the robots laying down suppressive fire against their foes from their positions with tracer rounds firing back and forth. Along the road, Stryker ICVs and Humvees were seen moving in around the town. Autocannons and machine guns, automated grenade launchers suppressed the enemy fighters while troops disembark and began to assault the entrenched positions.

But the initial assault momentum would soon be met with a barrage of infantry firearms from the Vipers. Most of whom were equipped with Vipers standard issued XM29 OICW, the hostile fighters fought with the ferocity and fanaticism seen only on the face of cornered snakes. Grenade rounds flew out of their barrels, curving down and struck the chest of some robots, knocking them back while other armor piercing rounds, no doubt DU in nature, wounding the other robots, crippling their mobility forcing them to find cover.

"Man down!" one robot shouted. "Somebody get the medic up here!" another cried out as he pulled his downed teammate away from the line of sight of the enemies. "Don't give up, just suppress and flank!" Their teammates called out on their robot coms, trying to keep the squad under control.

With the radio messages flying back and forth and casualties began to kick off, Belisarius felt tensed up hearing it. War has never been without casualties but for him to only hear of it coming to his ears felt unsettling. He was familiar with the sight of the killing up close and personal. "Lead from the front. Lead in person." He mumbled to himself as he stared at the holographic command map. "Enemy forces in Objective Tacitus appear to be well dug in. Expect heavy resistance." Leandros stated robotically but it didn't further help ease Belisarius's image of the situation.

"Have the Triage Center set up ASAP! We need to evacuate the wounded now, get some MEDEVAC vehicles ready. I'm going in personally." Said Belisarius with a deep grumble, this had Leandros raised his head up to Belisarius curiously.

"Interrogative, how will you exercise command and control when you are engaged in battle yourself?" He asked. To this Belisarius turned his eye to Leandros's face, his metal robot face seems stiff and hard to make out what he was trying to emoting. "Trust me little one, Romans are best led in person." Said Belisarius as he and Arminius quickly sprinted closer to the fighting.

As they sprinted out to the battlefield followed by troopers in their command squad, Arminius glanced over to Belisarius cautiously asking him. "What's gotten into you? You suddenly felt the urge for battles in person." Hearing this, Belisarius sighed out, in his own head, he heard the voice of the A.I modeled after him making criticism of him as well with its avatar popping up in his HUD noting his behaviors.

"Desires for direct combat parallel carnal desires. Determination to face death heads on and reckless disregard of command and control for daring actions." The AI stated. "You know what we Romans have been through Arminius, Acmeus. We who are dead have nothing left to fear, it's better to lead in person than to delegate orders from your safety and comforts." Belisarius remarked to Arminius and nodded to him as they reached the frontline fighting.

"Pull yourself together men! 1st Platoon, on me and Arminius, we're clearing this apartment block right here and now!" Belisarius barked out orders to the robot wolves who were slowly making their way up cautiously. Hearing the order and seeing his body language, some of them tossed out smoke grenades as they interpret the Assault order.

Once the FASGs detonated and the fog of white smoke obscured the line of sight, the robots begin to sprint forward, following Belisarius and Arminius closing in on the apartment block. Arminius and some of the robots quickly activated their magnetic pawpads and scale the apartment's verticality and gunned down the Vipers who were waiting for them on the upper floors.

Meanwhile, Belisarius stacked up with other robots on a wall to the East of the apartment block, they blasted through the wall using Belisarius's palm cannon sending concrete and debris flying everywhere.

The robots would soon push inward with their weapons at the ready, gunning down resistance from the handful of Vipers Operatives and better trained troops. As they pushed through both on the ground and top floors, the militia troops who were conscripted quickly fell to their knees, surrendering.

"I'm on point, follow me and cover each other's backs." Belisarius ordered them over their comm links as he led them up the stairs to the second floor of the building. "Sounds like someone just wet their pants. How come I know this suddenly?" CLU-09734 asked confusedly as his HUD gave out assessments of the sounds echoing around them as the squad moved up the second floor. They would soon find a pair of militants terrified and panicked to the point of their hands were visibly jittering and they were falling to their knees in fear when they saw the robots entering the room.

"Please don't shoot! We surrender!" One of the militia shouted in English, he appeared to be a Caucasian American in his late 20s and early 30s. The frightened man and his partner hastily dropped their A-91M rifles to the floor and put their hands behind their heads. "Hold your fire, and set up securities. CLU-09734 cuff them." Belisarius ordered them as he fanned out with the robots setting up securities covering the windows and doorways of the room.

"Affirmative sir, getting to work now." Said the robot wolf as he approached the two militants from behind and held them down, he tied a pair of zipcuffs on their hands, preventing them from wiggling. "Done Major, I think we should send these two POWs back to TOC, maybe they can cough up some intel for us." He suggested to Belisarius as the robot kept his kneecap pressing on one of the militant's head to keep them restraint.

"Good call, leave a chemlight here to mark their position. We need to keep moving." The Roman Robot instructed to his subordinate as they began to toss out a small chemlight on the floor to mark the room they have cleared and moved on, as they did Belisarius radioed his finding to allow additional units to pick up the prisoners.

[hr]

East Section Field HQ, Sha'ar Shomeron Interchange

His radio has been broadcasting nothing but bad news and even when nothing was being received, it was a grainy static. Messages of pockets being overrun by his enemies or probes by the GDI on his defensive lines. He was overseeing a holographic real time map of the battlefield with the SitReps flooding in by the seconds.

He saw X markers over rectangular boxes denoting Infantry forces and their variants such as Motorized being the same marker with circle symbols underneath, Mechanized and Armored forces along with their Artillery support elements moving forward a bit to chase smaller enemy forces. But those were soon pushed back by their enemies being a much larger group chasing them down after feint retreats.

Balthazar sighed out frustratingly watching the battle raged on and on with his forces in and around Tel-Aviv pocket was being slaughtered by their rash attacks and leaving their dug in positions. "Militias, shouldn't have let those evangelists sign up in the first place. Waste of money and supplies." He grumbled frustratingly as he watched the sight of his allies being decimated by the GDI's overwhelming firepower and combined arms tactics.

The sight of poorly trained and over eager militias and low grade troops throwing themselves out of cover and entrenched positions chasing fast moving motorized scouts only to be comically if not terrifyingly chased by mechanized and heliborne forces.

He slammed a balled fist on the table, not wanting to look at what could be best described as a foregone conclusion for long, he looked elsewhere, he pinched at the screen and moved it elsewhere he panned Eastward and saw that the frontline along Highway 60 was becoming a bulge with the Jackal Guards being seen driving a steel wedge inward. He quickly tapped the call button on hs helmet's side to dial the other commanders.

"Are you aware that we are being outflanked? Those mangy mutts are pushing through on the Highway to our left flank and they're making gains that will threaten our forces!" He called out to Jasper and Casper on the line while observing 3D holographic map display. "Well are you going to do anything about it? We're prepping Tel-Aviv over here but no way are we going to hold for long with their overwhelming firepower!" Casper retorted as the sound of gunfire and artillery roaring in the background can be heard.

"Damn you all! You entrusted that sector to low level militias and virgin would-be Crusaders. Mobilize the 2nd and 3rd Division ASAP. I'll be leading them myself to counter attack!" Balthazar slammed then ran out of his command tent and board an FAV to ride out to battles. Following him were his personal Armored Division bringing their loads of T-100 Ogre main battle tanks, MSE-3 Marid APCs and BTR-Kamysh IFVs to face his enemies himself, in the air his division's aviation wings were seen flying their signature Kajman gunships painted in crimson red hexagonal camouflage. Trailing him were various double barreled howitzers of the 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV type and FAVs on the flanks to scout out the terrain.

But as his division was moving away to the frontline from their interchange stronghold, his subordinates Casper and Jasper had other ideas in mind. Jasper in his command vehicle was seen marking waypoints much further north, moving the elite cream of the crops 2nd and 3rd Division away from the frontline. Those two he knew were the elite Crimson Viper Guards Division, prized fighters who were armed with various high tech military equipment and technology, if lost then they would lose the entire battle completely. "2nd and 3rd Division. You will not join Balthazar's counter attack, mobilize and take up defensive positions in Tel-Megiddo and Nazareth. If you are lost then Vipers has no future and our lord Apep will not be pleased by such ultimate defeat."

The Divisional commanders were of course baffled by the order, they thirst for battle and were trained to love it as they prepare to move out. But upon hearing it, they scratched their heads confused before remarked. "Uh...understood command. We'll do out." Said the Divisional commander reluctantly before having their forces move away from the frontline towards Nazareth and Tel-Megiddo. Seeing his troops taking order obediently, he sighed out with a satisfying breath. Though with a bit of bitterness knowing what would happen next with the way the battles were going.


	15. Chapter 15: Shock and Awe

Chapter 15: Shock and Awe

Ariel, Route 5

June 13th, 2034, 18:00

They had advanced well despite the rush planning of a tactical operation, with a penetration far deeper behind enemy lines, initially they projected themselves to be in Ofrah and stopped there only to find themselves strung up further into Ariel, much closer to the enemies defensive line than they had initially thought.

Celebration would have to be postponed until they are rotated off the frontline to rear area policing actions. For the time since their offensive was postponed for forces in the rear to catch up, the robot wolves have dug themselves in around the hillside settlement of Ariel into a salient looking West, North and East, ready to bear the brunt of an assault from any directions.

But concerns of fatigues were still high on their commander Belisarius's mind as he inspected his troops fighting positions. For the classical Commander, it was natural to simply give orders on a macro level with specific guidelines and let the micro management to be done by his own troops. But still he found himself patrolling the salient from one foxhole to another, one ATGM nest to the next to make sure that they have an overlapping field of fire.

By the time he had returned to the University of Ariel, the local command post of his battalion, he saw that there were two ibises setting themselves on the roof of the university's campus entrance. The two birds of iron landed down in front of him before morphing into more humanoid forms. "Ah my lord Thoth and the Abyssal Scribe, what pleasure do I have of hosting you here?" Belisarius greeted them politely and bowed his head as his programming dictate. To this Thoth bowed his head back at the robot to return the favor. "Thank you Belisarius but it is merely a matter of duties that brought me here. The Scribe though… I can't quite say the same." Thoth glanced slightly to the Abyssal Scribe who chuckled in response to Thoth's statement. "Oh such formality Thoth, I'm here for one thing only. To battle and feast on the remains of our enemies, which I should inform you is heading your way. Hehehe. An entire division of them with heavy armor and gunship supports too no less. Such a fine bloody battle I can expect this evening for dinner."

"Keep your bloodlust in check Scribe, unless I have to assert myself once again." Thoth sighed out reluctantly only to be ignored by the Scribe who took no notices of Thoth's threat before walking away into the University. "Anyway let's get to the briefing, we have a plan at least to defend this place." Said Belisarius as he began to lead Thoth into the University with the Scribe.

The trio soon arrived at what was once a Department Office of the university's Engineering course with the tables and chairs hastily assembled with a board drawn up by Leandros and Arminius with various references for their order of battles and overall plan. Here Thoth and the Scribe saw that they seemed to orient their forces Westward with reinforcement routes being the MSR leading from the South up to the North into the town itself.

"We don't have the firepower nor the strength in numbers to face them head on in battles. That's why our best bet is to let them overextend themselves." Belisarius began pointing at the map showing Thoth and the Scribe a red arrow indicating the advances of Viper's elite armor division. "We'll let them come at us, we'll bunt their Vanguard before falling back one at a time leading them into a trap, that's where we'll unleash inferno on them."

Hearing this the Scribe grinned with his beak parted as if to denote a sinister satisfaction seeing the plan being drawn out. "Ah excellent, let them bottle themselves before I get to unleash the power of the Void on them. Good...good… this will be much fun and enjoyment, for me." Said the Scribe as he rubbed his hands together. "And if it fails?" Thoth asked cautiously. "Then we will fall back to Highway 60, let them come further and call in a bomber strike on their forces before counter attack. That is the only way for sure." Belisarius remarked.

At that moment however, Leandros was seen tapping his right ear's interior with his head bending down a bit. "Update, confirmed sightings of Vipers forces moving towards Ariel, ETA, 20 minutes." Leandros stated to them with the Scribe and Belisarius nodding to him in response. "About time, let's burn some snakes then. Leandros, Arminius get to your units and assume command. My Lord Thoth, perhaps you would assume command of the situation while I handle myself in the field."

To this Thoth reluctantly sighed out but nodded to Belisarius as gestured for Belisarius to dismiss. "I shall help you to the best of my abilities. You have my words Belisarius." With that Thoth stroke his illuminating finger across the table, summoning a large holographic topographical map with a blue hue to its layout.

On the map were various rectangular icons with NATO style symbols and icons denoting infantry with an X mark over a blank rectangular, Armor with a horizontal oval and Mechanized Infantry with an X and two vertical lines to the left of the icon. The symbols were color coded with the built in IFF of the robots with blue denoting friendlies while red for hostiles.

"I am no strangers to war, and yet I have never commanded troops before. My pacifist nature… how I have failed to understand you Wepwawet." Thoth muttered regretfully as he watched the symbols moved to their positions with arrows showing their routes.

[hr]

Tel-Aviv, at that same time…

While the city was under lockdown with the population either have fled to their shelters or evacuated Northward along the highways of the country, the Vipers there were set to fight to their heart's content. To their south, the Chimera were pushing forward with artillery shells landing on their targets with precision accuracy, wiping out suspected command and control centers and any buildings of use for the Vipers.

The Vipers weren't about to let this go unabated as they retaliated with barrages of rocket artillery from batteries of BM-20 Grad scattered around the city. Old and crude but still no less devastating in its raw brute force. The exchanges in artillery escalated into the air as warplanes from either sides battle for domination, first came the Wild Weasels of the GDI and their fighter escorts, locked in a bitter struggle for survival with Vipers own fleet of YF-23 Black Widow II jets.

Missiles and flares darted the skies with streaks of smokes followed by fireballs in the night sky left the ground force awed by the spectacle of modern air warfare in an all out manner. But the most powerful force was about to enter the fray, out in the sea, a trio of gigantic SR-71 Blackbird like aircraft approached the country with the trio trailed off into 10 km apart from one another distances with their cargo bays opened up airdropping three Rex Units from the air.

The one in Tel-Aviv had a slender and feminine frame with candy red armor and white highlights and red LED color. This one was the daughter of the very first Rex Unit, Christine "Fury" Venus. She landed on the ground with a loud rumble crumbling buildings in a sudden and cratered the ground where she landed like a mini nuke.

Her brothers, Maquinyu and Zillaryu were seen landing in other areas far off from one another to set up three roadblocks to prevent enemy escapes with her in Tel-Aviv. "Christine, you be careful out there alright, we got intel confirming a possible stolen nuclear device placed in town. They might detonate it at anytime." Brigadier General Jason Grady called her while in his field HQ overseeing the operation coordinating troops of his Brigade fighting and slogging their ways through enemy defenses and mobile defense maneuvers. "You got it uncle Jason, I mean sir. I'll sweep the city and disarm it." Christine happily replied to him with a cheery tone as she began to move out to Tel-Aviv's downtown area to comb it for a nuclear device.

[hr]

Balthazar had made it, his division had reached line of contact with his enemies, however he was still enraged and uneased. His SIGINT units intercepted more nuisances for messages. "Sir, 2nd and 3rd Division are moving AWAY from the frontline, they're not converging on us as planned!" One of the SIGINT specialist stated to him with Balthazar snarling like a crazed animal hearing this, his fury builds up as he watched the frontline ahead of him, nothing but hills and perfect killzones for ATGMs and dug in Anti Tank threats. "Cap it with the worst bad news we have already." He ordered back at them, snapping at the group of radio intercept specialists. "Sir, we have three enemy Rex Units deployed to the combat zones, they're identified as Venus, Sicario and Pax." Another reported to him nervously.

"Well that just gives me a raging hard on to smash this defensive line. NOW! I want all forces prepare for battles, rear guards are to keep away from the nearest Rex Unit to our position." Balthazar ordered them as the forces under his command. They would soon move out with the Vanguards taking positions on the flanks and center before pushing in like a wedge.

As they approached the defensive lines around Ariel, streaks of Gungnir ATGMs flew up from their hidden positions and flew up in the air before smashing down into Ogra tanks and various Kamysh IFVs in clusters of four missiles each. With the missiles smashing into their vehicles, ambushed early on, the Vanguard element was stunted at first but soon recovered and open fire on the defenders with their remaining vehicles tearing apart covers and kicked up dust.

[hr]

He can see the battle raging on the distant horizon, plumes of smoke streaking into the sky in the wake of SAMs chasing aircraft while others were from jets and airborne assets dogfighting and bombing targets on the ground. From the distant horizon to the south of the city, Jr waded forward looking at the humans fighting one another in confusion, he couldn't tell who's who anymore, neither could he bring himself to care. All he knew was that his family, his niece and nephews were there.

"Come on, let's go guys. Christine, she's in there and I need to find her now!" Jr stumbled forward, panting out of breath as he had walked a long mile from the safety areas towards the frontline. Accompanying him were Anguirus, Rodan and Hera to be his liaison with the humans. Hera herself held Jr back by his right arm, tugging him gently. "Whoa whoa hey stop there hunky, listen, you gotta stop worrying for once and let me deal with this." Hera then attempted to go forth only to have Jr held her back and moved up. "Not this time! I'm her uncle and I need to protect her! She doesn't know what's out there!" He growled out in response and ran forward much to Hera's chagrin, Angy in turn facepalmed himself.

"Sorry about that missy, but that's in his element. The kid's overprotective of his family. Be it his kids or Shiryu's own." Angy sighed out as he began to make his way forward with Hera sighing out and sprinting forth, causing trembles and quakes as she stomped the ground, crumbling multiple buildings from her footprints. "Hey wait wait wait wait wait guys! Let me follow y'all!" Rodan hastily made a running start before taking off into the air, flapping his wings, causing more damages to lives and properties to both sides.

Lurking behind one of the skyscrapers in Tel-Aviv was hardly well hidden for a Rex Unit, but concealment was not what Christine looking for, rather cover and shielding from incoming enemy projectiles.

Again and again, rocket artillery barrages and cruise missile strikes were directed at her, but all either slammed harmlessly into the skyscrapers and blew off more chunks of debris or bounced harmlessly off of her armor.

She lurched out of the building and opened her mouth plate, firing off her atomic breath slamming into the batteries of artillery near her position and strafe to the side, wiping out several more building blocks occupied by the enemies.

Dust clouds were kicked up, obscuring the view forcing her to switch to thermal imaging to see through the smokes. The world would soon be rendered in a pitch black and white screen but she could see that her marksmanship with the atomic breath had blown a gaping hole to one of the shopping mall in the area. Within it, sitting on the ground by the center of the mall's two halves was the nuclear device. A large crate with the detonator and warhead wired to explode.

"Command, I have eyes on the Nuclear Warhead, repeat positive ID on the warhead sitting at grid square-" Before Christine could finish sending off her message to Brigadier General Jason Grady, the nuclear device detonated, erupting into a violent explosion that threw her down on her back with the building she was using as cover collapsing down on her face and torso, the blast cratered the center of the city with the shockwave reaching far out obliterating multiple blocks all the way to the outskirts, wiping out most landmarks off the map. With the skyscrapers and buildings around town falling over, burying Christine and Jr along with Hera in the process, scattering the humans around them.

[hr]

The radio operator sat there in fear as he listened in on the broadcasts from his fellow Viper forces as they retreat or get obliterated by a rampaging Rex Unit that was coming closer and closer to them. At this point the battle has turned for the worst and hopes for victory fade like dying lights he turned to Balthazar and sighed out reluctantly.

"S-sir… our rear guard has been obliterated. I lost contact with 4 battalions guarding our rear and now more are retreating from the AO. We've lost." He said defeatingly to Balthazar who heeded the news with a grim silence. He lowered his binoculars to see a charred landscape with the fields being littered with blazing tank wrecks, the troops he brought to battles had been beaten by a well entrenched foe. His attack lack reinforcements to push on, his gamble had failed with the sight of his forces turn tail and run off as fast as they can. "The die is cast, as Caesar said. The time has come for us to accept our fates." Said Balthazar as he sat down on the chair of his command vehicle, hopelessly watch the situation slowly deteriorate around him.

Miles behind him there was Zillaryu "Pax", the oldest of the Rex Unit triplets of Shiryu Rex, he was seen stomping through the land, smashing through defensive lines hastily formed by the Vipers. They broke and reformed only to be broken again and again as he marched forward firing his Kaiju sized M16A4 rifle in 3-rounds-burst at his enemies with his rounds being akin to artillery or tank shells smashing and popping enemy tanks quite easily, detonating the vehicles into smoldering ruins.

He then opened his mouth plate and unleash his atomic breath decimating the remnants of the Viper tank division with the Ogre tanks, Wheel of Ezekiel and Devil's Tongue flame tanks being reduced to nothing but flaming fireballs on the ground. As Zillaryu finally arrived at Ariel and his visor zoomed in, noticing the defensive lines of the settlement manned by robot wolves just as he had been briefed.

He scanned around noticing that every stretches of 50 meters there was a wide holographic hieroglyph wall put up in front of the defender's LOS. This made him much more curious as he then tapped on the right side of his helmet trying to tune into the communication network of the Jackal Guards.

As he tuned in, Pax saw on his HUD a caller ID was approved on his Codec screen. Zillaryu saw that the caller ID had Egyptian hieroglyphs written on the top with the head of an ibis attached to the body of what appeared to be a minimalist sitting human body.

Then the screen was patched in, showing him the face of Thoth sitting with his legs crossed and levitating inside what appeared to be a school. "Oh, you must be Thoth right? The ibis God of the Moon isn't it?" He asked politely, to which Thoth chuckled slightly feeling somewhat rejuvenated by the mere mentioning of his name.

"Ah Zillaryu Pax aren't you? It is a pleasure and honor to meet you again. How is your family?" He asked him rhetorically with a gentle smile formed on his beak. "Indeed I am the Arbiter of the Damned, you've arrived at a timely manner as we weren't sure if we could hold them off for long." He complimented the Rex Unit who nodded to Thoth as he then secured the safety catch on his M16A4. "All been doing well. Correction: most of us have been well. My father sent me here to assist you. May I have a debrief with the CO of this outfit?" He asked Thoth with his professionalism being maintained at all time high with the Ibis nodded to him. "Affirmative, I'll patch you to Belisarius, he's the commander of this battalion."

As Zillaryu was standing by to get a line to Belisarius, he looked down on the ground and saw the Orion Sword troopers in Shadow Company combat gear were approaching the wrecked vehicles conducting a combat sweep for stragglers, as they did, they executed various surviving vehicle crew and enemy soldiers begging for salvation.

Accompanying them were robot wolves with Orion Sword emblem on their chest panel denoting them as part of the force defending the area. One of the men there came across the command vehicle of Balthazar with the Viper commander coming out holding his hands up in the air, he tossed down his weapons and quietly got to his knees. The robots quickly swarmed around him and pin his head on the ground with their feet and tied his hands behind his back using Zip Cuffs before escorting him away.

Soon enough, Pax saw that a new caller ID was presented on his Codec screen with Latin words writing on it using classical Roman alphabetical font, "CLU-I 01172 Belisarius". This was followed by the live video feed to Belisarius, the robot wolf appeared to be busy counting his losses in the area. "Greetings, uh… Unit Belisarius? May I have a word with you about what's been happening here?", then he heard Belisarius made a grumble as the robot wolf replied to Zillaryu by lighting up a green flare and waved it in the air to get his attention before placing it on the ground next to him, allowing Zillaryu to take some steps forward zooming in his view to see Belisarius's face.

"Why hello there. You seem rather handsome for a robot wolf. I think." Zillaryu blurbed out for a moment giving Belisarius a slightly amused chuckle, knowing the pleasing aesthetic the robots like him enjoy thanks to Anubis's design choice. "Gratias tibi. My men were about to break off from our defensive lines. But your timely arrival put halt to that notion." Said Belisarius with a relaxed sigh as he sat down on a wooden chair with his left leg resting on his right knee. Noticing this, Pax immediately picked up on Belisarius body language being something similar to Mr. Grey's own. "You are versed in Roman Latin? I have so much questions to ask about you yourself. But let's stay on the point here."

"Task Force 1-5 has suffered 15% casualty rate, wounded are being treated with damaged components are being replaced as we speak. Recommended action: Rest and Recuperate till further notice." Belisarius stated in a surprisingly monotonous manner, he felt odd out by it and knock his temple a few times, giving Pax some moment of confusions. "Is there something wrong with you? Are you malfunctioning from combat fatigues?"

Belisarius shook his head out as he glanced up to face Pax face to face and shook his head. "Negative, it is the built in AI that I have a symbiotic relationship with. It takes over from time to time to report in statistics. Rather disturbing personally when it behaves like a mirror image of me." Pax took a moment to compose himself feeling rather odd by the seemingly split personality case Belisarius had.

"Is it a problem to you? It sounds like it's trying usurp control of your body." Pax muse cautiously, to which Belisarius shook his head to the Rex Unit standing before him and his Battalion. "Negative, it is simply doing it's job albeit somewhat intrusive. I do wish it ask for consent to take over my vocal module first however." The A.I of Belisarius however began to project itself out before Belisarius and Pax as a hologram looking identical to his host and crossed its arms slightly frowning. "CLU-I 01172, I am simply performing my duty reporting statistics where you might not be able to do so." The A.I defended itself with a snarky remark before it then proceeded to give Belisarius's rumps a spank. "If it is consent you wish for, then I shall respect it starting now."

Belisarius then grit his teeth, but could not do much of anything to stop the response and tingling feeling from reaching his brain. He just sighed out while Pax turned his head away and gave out a more frustrated huff of the breath. "Doesn't seem as if you have the control. I wasn't expecting it to perform in more sexual advances. Could this be an issue on the field?..." Pax grumbled.

"To be frank with you Pax, it never did that to me before. As far as I know the A.I is patterned off of me with its own quirks. So we will have to wait and see where it goes." The Major let out a soften response to Pax as he sat on his wooden chair.

Pax's video and audio recordings of their conversation was streamed back to Mother Base archive to document the moment, beside the awkward sexual advances by the A.I from before, archivists of the Chimera, Shiryu, Chikiryu and others were able to watch the mannerism and listen closely to Belisarius voice as if they were seeing the late Mr. Grey but in a different mindset, a different person almost.

[hr]

The howling wind blew sand and debris into the air, a scene almost out of hell with the sky turned blood red. Everywhere rubbles and ruins dotted the land with men and machines scattered and half buried. Some sporadic fightings continue but mostly uncoordinated.

(Static) "Christine, come in do you read?" (Static) "Christine come in, do you read over?" Jason called to her on the radio with the transmission being static and grainy due to the EMP interference with radio communication. However the Nuclear Warhead's EMP alone was not enough to completely knock out communication network of both factions as Christine "Venus" can see a lone GDI helo shining spotlight over her chest and face while she laid on the ground with a building on her chest.

Christine's large white optics broke though in a bright near LED type light as her white optics pierced through the dust and debris in the air. She couldn't feel herself though. And she couldn't move. The feeling of the nuclear blast dazed her. Confused she focused her vision back onto the helo as it hovered over.

She looked over and saw the building on her chest and body. She rose an arm to try and push it away, btu in doing so she found herself to be real stiff. "H-... Here…. I can't feel much. There's A- I'm stuck down here." She said in a weaker voice.

She felt a rush of feeling move through her however. A sharp instinctual ingle as the red around her seems to spike another feeling in her body. The radiation in the air made her shiver a bit. It was like a food. It gave her some energy. Just enough to help move her stiff arm a bit more and place the palm of her hand on the building side. "What happened?... I feel like a power house, and like a stoned… nevermind. Can anyone see me?" she asked in a shaken up tone.

"Good copy we can see you moving from here, don't worry Christine I'll see if I can dispatch somebody to come and help you." Jason replied to her before he hastily look back at his command map. The 3D holographic map showed that the majority of his frontline forces have suffered severe damages and were in dire need to retreat and regroup before they could even hope to do anything. The map however did show him Hera, Jr, Angy and Rodan near Christine's location with Hera slowly rising up from the debris. He then quickly dialed the radio to Hera's frequency with his caller ID appeared on her Codec screen and HUD.

"Hera, come in can you hear me? Listen, Christine is down near your position. I need you to get over and help her up. My guys can't keep up and need to retreat so be careful out there, hun." Jason breathed out in rapid succession, feeling himself entirely conquered by familial concerns towards Christine and Hera as well as that for his own troops. He then marked Christine's location on Hera's HUD for her to navigate her way over.

As he monitored the Holographic map however, his concern began to peak a bit more, much closer to life threatening territories when he saw a slight red blip appeared on the map before disappearing. Its last known position being marked with a ? before the same contact appears again moving in a vector towards Hera and Christine.

Hera suffering more damages to some of her armor had at least the rest of her body to use. The armor may not have been fully nuclear resistant but the interior body faired well. "Oh man you guys wouldn't believe this rush i'm feeling right now. Hey you three come follow me now!" Hera shouted.

Her way of travel wasn't intentional however. Instead of running or dashing her thigh panels opened up and released a flame of blue colored fire that propelled her forwards. She didn't even explain what thrush way.

Jr held up his hand to rodan and anguirus while ash and dust fell off of their massive bodies. "Stay here. Angy get Rodan out of here. I gotta follow Hera. She didn't- nevermind. Hang on!" jr shouted following Hera through the destroyed land.

Christine where she was at used her hands to crumble the building to nothing more than rubble and dust sing her grasp to tear it down. Amazing her armor was in one pieces, but had a lot of signs of soke form possible burned wiring. In more places however the impact of the blast dazed her to a point of shock. She just lay there in the rubble letting her senses regain. Hard to do when she could not grasp onto any explanation.

As Hera and Jr came to aid Christine, lifting the building off of her to allow rescue efforts being possible. The effort kicked up more dust and debris as the building was lifted off of Christine's chest causing more dust and soot to fall onto her chest armor before she finally got up to her feet again. But as they were recovering from the shock of the nuclear blast, they felt the ground shook and shudder with another monster coming to fray.

To the north, Hera and Christine can see an albino white mechanical dinosaur coming into the fray. The Mecha I-Rex that Jr ran into sometimes ago now came back with a vengeance. With blood red eyes and long sharp teeth in its jaw the dinosaur roared out a metallic, distorted sound intimidating them before its shoulders revealed a pair of missile launcher modules. It fired off the missiles at them in a swarm to overwhelm the group before dashing forward.

The missiles all made their way to Hera and Christine. Both of them trying to support each other, but there was no possible way for them to move without being hit by the misles. The sounds of large explosions popped through the air, but not a single one struck Hera or Christine.

Both of them saw Jr dashing into the rockets path taking he blow to the roughs of his pointed scales that wera ll at the base of his jagged plates. They didn't do much but blast off a few scales, but fearing what he saw and the old visions that filled his mind did not seat him well.

"Ah the sexy Hera isn't it? This will be a fun learning experience as I reprogram you to serve my cause." The Mecha I-Rex taunted Hera before prowling around her and Christine, waving the metal tail and pushing it with an almost sexualize manner. The I-Rex then turned its eyes over to Jr and grinned to him. "Well well well, look what the cat drag get here. The handsome hunky Godzilla. Maybe after we're done here we'll restart our relationship." The I-Rex seemingly winked at Jr before proceeding to pummel Hera, ramming the T-Rex Raptor like head into Hera's chest pushing her back and throwing her on her back before swinging the tail at Christine's face.

Christine dived down onto her chest and groaned in pain. She wasn't ready to fight yet. Barely getting her bearing she crawled on the ground. "Don't these guys ever let up!" Christine shouted.

The Mecha I-Rex felt a sharp sting land into her side shoulder plate hard enough to knock her to the side. Jr came right after her sliding to a stop next to Christine. She was picked up by Jr right as Hera got back out of the ashes now equipped with her whip.

"I can't fight her. No way. You can though. I'll get Christine out of here." Jr said holding Christine close.

Hera's dorsal plates flashed underneath their burnt and loose armor. Hera's much more crumbled and dented, but staying strong on her two feet she nodded. "Then let's dance. I've been wanting to get mean." Hera said eyesing the I-Rex.

"Then I won't disappoint, babe." The I-Rex grinned and spanked her own rumps as if to tease and taunt Hera before making a power dash forward, the mouth of the Mecha I-Rex opened up and fired off an intense laser beam at Hera's chest pushing her back before leaping up into the air. The I-Rex then pinned Hera down on the ground with both its hands holding Hera's shoulders before it then moved its head closer to Hera's face.

The female MFS Unit could tell the I-Rex was putting on its best sadistic slasher smile its metal face could offer. "Ooooh I can feel your heat, you're getting turned on there. Wanna let me help you release the heat babe?" The Mecha I-Rex then forced a kiss on Hera's lips, pressing their lips against one another and pushing its own tongue into Hera's mouth.

Hera bit her own teeth down though and forcefully rolled herself on top of the other mech ono of her switching their positions. Hera then used the back of her left hand to grope at the back of the I-Rex's thigh tilting her legs forward pinning her down in place while he used her body weight and strength to hold the aggressor down and off of her. "You seem to be the one pulling the advances on me." Hera stated.

"Why not? You're the one with the sexy accessories and I have the thicc thighs for your liking." The Mecha I-Rex's chest panel flipped open and before Hera's eyes, the mechanical monster blasted Hera with its sonic amplifiers throwing Hera off of its chest. The mechanical sadist stood up and pushed its tail to and fro as it walked towards Hera seductively, making long strides and swaying its hips side to side.

"Now then, let's get this started shall we?" The Mecha I-Rex then flipped Hera around, pressing her down on her stomach with its eyes fixed firmly on Hera's neural outlet port. "I got options for you, babe. Submissive or Cooperative. Your choice." The Mecha I-Rex crooned to Hera's ears as she licked Hera's dorsal plates. It then began to open up the left wrist panels, revealing a cable slipping out with a USB port to access Hera's port outlet. "Either way, our sexy times will make your beloved Athena and Isis green with envy."

Hera though continued to struggle using her body and her cybertics to wriggle around to break out of the grip the I-Rex had on her. "Like i'll allow that dino-bitch!..." She twitched and rolled herself around using the back of one of her feet to strike the I-Rex in the side of the head freeing herself from her grip. Her neural outlet closed while Jr was log gone with Christine.

Breaking free of the seductive grip Hera lashed her massive whip out crying it at both of the I-Rex's hands creating a flash of sparks each time its tip struck the I-Rex's hands. Hera then charged up her next attack by flickering her dorsal plates up. Her mouth glew a bright cyan now waiting for her atomic railshot to be fully charged.

The I-Rex growled in pain feeling her armor panels torn off by Hera's strikes and the fact stood very clear that further assaults would only be her undoing. The I-Rex then flipped open the side panels on her own thighs and fired off a pair of chaff and flare dispensers. The devices were round rotary devices firing off dozens of flares at Hera to confuse her targeting system before turning tail and run.

"See you later, babe." The I-Rex huffed out at Hera before running to the north as fast as possible trying to get away from Hera and the Chimera. "Hera you alright? We got Christine back behind the line safe now, you should retreat as well since this AO is a lost." Jason called to her on the radio as he watched from the safety of his command vehicle.

Hera shook her head out and groaned. Her whip retracted back into her palm. "The AO lost? Thats putting it Lightly Jason. More like wiped off from the face of the map. This is going to be kaiju domain pretty soon. A large oasis for us." Hera said walking out of the destruction zone.

As she walked down south, she would see the Chimera forces were having their hands full with their wounded. The local triage centers, clinics and hospitals were full of dead and wounded from the nuclear blast, many were suffering from wrinkled and burns from Nuclear blast leaving them scarred and exposed to possible cancer later on in their life.

Others were busied cleaning the radiation off of their vehicles with high powered water hoses. When Hera returned to their line, she was greeted by heavy water hoses spraying her body to clean up the possible radiation residues before she was dried up with large fans brought in by the GDI.

The female MFS-7 saw that additional Rex Units from her Hydra were brought in to assist the occupation force stabilizing the front and reinforcing the line. Further supports and logistics were brought in to help repair her armor and weapon systems with Christine being treated by one of the Rex Units from the Hydra while the others were seen treating wounds on Jr, Rodan and Angy. "Mother Rex Hera, we've seen footages of your encounter with the unknown enemy mecha unit. Are you sustaining critical damages?" One of the Rex Unit asked stiffly.

Hera sat herself down on her back and presented her body to the Rex Unit after laying her back down. "Just get me fixed up so I can shove something far down her-"

Jr laying down on the ground felt awkward with so many human creation around him attending to him. He found Christine to be more up, but still woozy. He made a smile to her though seeing her getting back up on her own. "Drunk on radiation? It's been awhile since I've had that much. Don't over do it though. Too much of it is a bad thing." Jr reminded.

"I guess this is my first shot huh uncle Jr? Don't worry I won't overdose it till I'm old enough." She let out an innocent giggle as she was being treated to by one of the stiff Rex Units of Hera's Hydra as he helped adjust her armor plates. "Mother Rex Hera, recommend that you restrain yourself from further taxing actions until we have verified your wounds are healed." Said the Rex Unit tending to her, to which she nodded with a reluctant sigh.


	16. Chapter 16: Family Reunion

Chapter 16: Family Reunion

Neve Menahem, Northwest of Ariel

June 14th, 2034, 06:00

Throughout the night, he jumped at the proverbial shadows of Viper forces scattered in the area. The EMP and radioactive fallout from the nuke would never affect him much if at all. Let alone his electronics. Maquinyu squatted on the ground with his grenade launcher in hands ready to fire. Now he had another prey to hunt and he was eager to pounce on the target.

The landscape was not conducive to armored warfare with hills dotting the land and roads snaking through the area allowing his enemies to hide from his sight. But he didn't need his eyes to spot them. The male Rex Unit in orange armor, black helmet with orange optics and white highlights where his father's green would be, tapped his fingers on his thigh patiently, as he waited for his preys to enter the killzone. Soon enough his preys finally came into views, a Mechanized Regiment, or rather a portion of it was sneaking through the valleys after their engagements with the Jackal Guards and were trying to break out of the AO.

"Muy bien chicos, es mi hora de juego ahora." Said Maquinyu "Overdrive" Sicario as he aimed his grenade launcher at the enemies, the massive Rex Unit let loose his signature battle roar and opened fire on the enemies, his Kaiju sized M32 GL lobbed its shots across the grassy landscape and landed on the road ahead of the convoy, obliterating it leaving it with a gaping hole on the ground, forcing the convoy to grind to a halt. "Listo o no, ahí voy!" He excitedly sprinted forward from where he was hiding and rushed the convoy.

He lobbed off another grenade at the enemies, obliterating the masses of Ogre tanks and IFVs at the rear of the convoys before skidding to a halt throwing up dirt on the surviving vehicle. "Come on! Come on! Drive damn it! We're gonna get mauled out here, drive already!" One Viper called out to the driver in panic. "We can't, something's jamming the car! I can't get it to work!" Much to the driver's chagrin, his car and many other vehicles were suddenly in a lockdown, they didn't make any effort to move or budge. They simply sat there and simply could not move at all despite there were traversable terrains around them. "Welp told ya it's my fun time so here we go! Woohoo!" Sicario cackled as he then mount the grenade launcher on his back.

He then grabbed hold of one of the Ogre tank in one hand while manhandling a truck with another. "Vroom vroom vroom! Oye mang need some gas?" He played around with the vehicles skidding them back and forth as if they were his toys while the crew inside screamed terrifyingly at the prospect of being manhandled. "Si si amigos, here lemme get the fuel for ya!" He imitated the voices of the Viper crews as he then rammed the tank into a fuel cistern rear end while ramming the front with the truck. The resulting explosion completely wiped out the truck and severely damage the tank in his hand while he laughed and giggled excitedly.

"Oh the Humanity! Oh the cruelty! Lmao that's like the best thing I have had since deployment. Gotta cap this moment." He then grabbed a large smartphone made for Rex Units and MFS Units like him to document the moment. He however paused for a moment when he felt something was off. The wind suddenly picked up around him as the grass rustled violently. "Uhh… this doesn't seem good at all. Like not one bit at all." He looked around before noticing something building up by one of the hillside settlement.

It looked like a tornado of sand with the sand from the ground building up to a large tornado in the middle of the desert and grassy hills. "Que esta pasando aqui?" He uttered in absolute amazement and confusion as he looked up at the sight of the tornado. Frozen and petrified in astonishment, Sicario curiously held up his phone and mindlessly hit the button on screen to take a photo of the tornado. "Wat dafuq is this shit!? Nobody at intel told me to look out for this!" Maquinryu flabbergasted as he cowered away from the highway before ducking behind a hill looking at the tornado developing before him.

He soon heard a terrifying unearthly growl, a primeval rage filled roar followed by what appeared to be a massive avatar of a canine Egyptian deity. Sicario saw the figure to be identical to Anubis in appearance, with gold veins and scars all over his torso as the deity appeared to have grey color fur instead of dark black like Anubis.

With a swipe of his left hand, the deity summoned a massive sand wall racing towards the nearby settlement, engulfing the people and IDF troops stationed there in layers of sand.

Followed by another swipe from his right hand, what appeared to be packs of feral hyena, all with blood red eyes and flaming fur ran towards their prey, the stranded mortals and Vipers in the area and devour them ferociously. Men, women, children and elderly, none were spared as the hyenas tackled them to the ground, mauled their flesh and teared them limps from limps.

"The Two-Lands shall not be defiled by your kind!" The entity roared out in his ancient Egyptian tongue, there was no way for Sicario to understand what those words meant, but he would soon see what was to follow. "Gather your flesh and bones. Renew your sinews, for the fury of the Afterlife calls upon your service!" Sicario saw with his two eyes a frightening sight, from the inky dark mists on the ground rose demonic warriors with blood red eyes, teeth as sharp as blades and the pale grey fur color that didn't seem like Anubis at all despite the striking similarities.

"Imyup setna!" The deity ordered with a thundering roar, sending the warriors into a roaring rampage across the land, they butchered soldiers of the IDF and Vipers indiscriminately, burning houses and throwing torches into nearby haystacks, setting the settlements ablaze while parading the beheaded foes around as their trophies.

The orgies of carnage and bloodshed along with their inherent violent, bloodthirsty nature shuddered Sicario. He was trained to not fear bloodshed, but the nature of combat of modern warfare seem to be impersonal, far removed from the brutality and the unbridled barbarity on display before his eyes. "I gotta get out of here. Dispatch, dispatch this is Anvil-3, made contact with an unknown, don't know how to explain the shit's going down but attempting to relocate to… safer ground over."

"Anvil-3 say again, over? What the hell is going on over there?" The dispatcher asked confusedly, however Sicario could only look back over his shoulder briefly as he ran away as fast as possible from the sight of the giant entity laying waste to the land around him. "Repeat, retreating from my pos, made contact with an unknown. I can't even explain that shit!" Sicario remarked as he ran further away from the battlefield heading southward towards Tel-Aviv.

[hr]

Far from the battlefield and engagements in the north, Tel-Aviv was still a radioactive no man's land with the scene of the city left to ruin, the projected civilian death toll has skyrocketed to the tens of thousands.

Nothing concrete is confirmed yet, other than a guess, an estimation of 30-40,000 dead and wounded by the nuclear blast. The city's center was Ground Zero with the five Rex Units of Hera spread out and out of their armor to soak up the radiation every 2 hours intervals to clean the area up.

The city's landscape was dotted with footprints of Hera, Jr, Christine and the Mecha I-Rex from their previous battle in the night. This left little hope to rebuild a ruined city since every now and then another gas leak exploded and brought down another city blocks or cratering the streets of the city.

Watching the situation from a hill top, Grady sighed out seeing the sight, even though he was on the outer edge of the irradiated zone he still had to wear his NBC protection suit and gas mask to protect himself. With his binoculars in hand, he scanned the area, occasionally zoom in and out for a moment at the Rex Units to see how they were going about cleaning up the radiation.

"It will take more than Rex Units to clean up radiation from nuclear strike. That's just one city, to say nothing about a continent or a large plain." He thought morbidly before taking the binoculars off slowly, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer fanaticism Vipers displayed with their nonchalant usage of a nuclear warhead. Even with just a Tactical Nuclear Warhead, they've left a scar on the GDI.

"Sir, got a call from Upstairs." One of the intel officer of the GDI Military Intel called to Jason causing him to flinch back and ran into the command tent and picked up a video call from the his superior officer, General Shepard. "Yes sir general?" Jason saluted the general quickly followed by the African-American senior officer returning the salute offering him to be at ease. "At ease Grady, General Grady I regret to inform you that we can't risk further offensive operations into Viper held territories. As long as they have those nukes, God knows what would they do next with those." General Shepard stated sternly much to Jason's mixture of disappointment and expectation.

"Sir with all due respect, what do you suggest we do on the ground, harsh language and tea?" He retorted. "Consolidate your gains Grady. We're considering our options but negotiation will only stall them. We'll bus in reinforcements for you but you need to make sure that they can't push you back. That is all." General Shepard cut off the call leaving Jason to contemplate his situation as he walked away from the screen and sat down by a table with his fellow commanding staffs from Orion's Sword, GDI and UNKCC Rangers.

"Alright folks, looks like we're suspending offensive operations. We're to dig in and consolidate. Basically make sure that they won't come back to bite our asses. But we saw it. They are willing to blow a nuke to stop us, and whatever they're planning they won't hold a word at the negotiation table." Jason stated to them with the staffs there handing out maps and references of territories held by Vipers.

Now the Israelis official areas were now a strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, Haifa and Acre and the Bronze Age fortress of Tel-Megiddo. The famous Biblical site of an ancient Battle. "We need to find a way to strike them. Go deep, go hard or go home." Jason concluded.

"My GDI can provide logistic and Air Support as well as some vehicle support being airdropped into the AO. But we need a specialized team on the ground. Rangers can offer armored protection and firepower, Orion guys are stealthy and good recon and infiltrators. But we need more…" Jason contemplated looking at either Joe Marshall and Nicolas Williams. "Who do you guys think would be best suited for this Op?" He asked them.

"How about we throw a wild card in?" nioclas said with his hand raised up. He had a more serious expression. Being so close to the proximity of another neuk did not bode well for his mind.

"A wild card? Of course!" Jason slammed his clenched fist on the table before launching into the air. "We have the Rangers, we got Orion Ninjas and regulars to back them up. My Air support and logistic, all we need now is that Anubis guy to offer us his help! That's brilliant! We need to get to him now!" Jason snapped his fingers in excitement with a gleeful smile on his face showing that he was apparently having an idea in mind for what to do.

[hr]

Jackal Guards encampment, Ariel

Sicario had ran as fast as he could away from the encounter he had with the specter, it didn't take him long to reach Ariel, where he saw his brother Zillaryu Pax was resting by a hillside with his kaiju sized M16A4 being checked and cleaned for maintenance.

Next to Zillaryu were various robot wolves and Jackals of Anubis personal army looking up at him in awe and curiosity. Some were Inquisitor Robots keeping themselves busy by painting Egyptian style portraits of Zillaryu showing him apparently sitting on a throne swatting a serpent representing Apep's Vipers troops.

Zillaryu was deeply focused in the maintenance of his gun. Almost in a trance since he didn't know of the gathering beyond him. It was an odd focus to the disassembled weapon, and he was only snapped out of build when Maquiniyu ran up close to him. He skidded to a halt with a dust cloud going over Zillayu.

"Oh! Hello man!" Zillaryu stuttered out. He looked over to Maquinyu's frantics body motions. He cocked his head and put hs rifle down. "Oh no. did something else occur?..." Zillaryu said standing up.

Maquinyu only nodded looking back at where he ran from. "¡Santo hombre de mierda un ghost me estaba chocando! ¡Yo pensé que hoy iba a morir! Se detuvo en absoluto!" he yelled quickly looking back.

Zillaryu understood what he had said, but the way he had said it frantically gave him some concern. He had to pull a pistol out form his thigh compartment after moving forwards. "Ghosts?" Zillaryu said. "I don't think this is your drug talking. What did it look like?" Zillaryu asked him.

"B-big thing. Looks like Anubis I mean he's just Anubis with a new DLC paint job slap onto him. Gigantic like a bust rising out of a whirling sand tornado mang!" Sicario shuddered as he pointed his fingers to the distant horizon at the direction where he saw the specter.

On the far side of the horizon, Zillaryu zooming optics could see what appeared to be an anthropomorphic canine deity, or rather the spirit of one rising out of a sand tornado. The spirit looks like Anubis in general appearance, almost like a splitting image, the difference being the color, wherein Anubis had jet black color, the specter had grey and pale color.

Both Pax and Sicario could see that the specter's roar shook the earth and tossed all who opposed him spinning inside the tornado, ripped apart by the sand grains, all of which were sharp as blades. His hands can push out sandstorms engulfing settlements and buried occupants in their own homes. His minions were demonic hyenas and various ghostly warriors almost like Anubis's signature soldiers but much more bloodthirsty and ferocious.

Zillaryu then stepped back seeing the vicious attack by the sand cloud spirit. He dug his talons down into the ground below while ducking examing what was hapeening. "Hey! Get to cover! It's coming this way!" Pax shouted.

Maquinyu looking down at the amount of guards of the ground making the art looked back and stood up with him. He took zillaryu's partially disabled weapon and tugged him by the arm. "Outta here now! Faster! Is there a trench around here! A ditch?" Maqinyu shouted while pulling Zillaryu backwards.

All the while Zillaryu had a good view of the paranormal storm headed towards them. And quickly. He looked back letting his footing be dragged on. "Must go faster."

As the storm was heading straight towards the two, it disturbed Anubis who was nearby in one of his command tent, he grabbed his Was Scepter and ran out, sprinting straight towards the storm wall before skidding to a halt before it. He then slammed the Scepter on the ground and spread his palms out horizontally casting a spell of divine protection. The storm grind to a halt before his presence as the storm began to morph and manifest itself into what appeared to be an anthro canine deity wearing Egyptian Cobra hood crown.

They saw how the deity and Anubis were identical in appearance, the same height, long and triangular pointy ears with gold veins on the body of the Specter. "Wepwawet, the Opener of the Way. So we meet at last, brother?" Anubis asked the specter cautiously. "Who are you to call me brother? You who forsaken your kingdom's safeties? Let Canaan fall into the hands of invaders? You have neither courage nor dignity to be my kin!" The specter snarled at Anubis menacingly, the cyber Jackal however remained unphased as he snapped his finger, encasing Wepwawet inside mummy wrappings.

At first he thought that the method would keep the specter at bay, only for it to seemingly slash the wrappings apart with a golden sword. "Inepu, Son of Osiris and Nephthys. You who challenged Set, forsaken your flesh and blood for the casings of metal? Who are you to command me?" The specter violently challenged Anubis only to have the jackal deity swatted his arm away before landing a jab against his stomach. "The Patron of the Dead, and you are long overdue for retirement." Anubis sighed out disappointingly. "I will not rest, until Kemet is safe and these filthy insects removed from our borders." Wepwawet retorted before slashing his sword across Anubis's chest, throwing him back violently before disappearing from sight, leaving them safe for the time being.

"Hmmph, may the Hidden One drags you to the Afterlife. The Lord of the Duat awaits." Anubis remarked as he slowly stood up looking down at his torso armor. He can see a straight slash line was visible from his left shoulder down to his right waist. He looked back at Pax and Sicario and sighed out to them both. "Don't worry I've seen worse. At least you're safe now." Said Anubis as he held his wound.

Walking away from the outskirts of Ariel back into the encampment of his forces, Anubis sighed out as he entered a field mechanic tent where automated industry robots were seen tending to the various robot units present there. It was like a medical tent for them, only here the only sound they could hear is the mechanical whirring of actuators and hydraulics.

Even his metal armor plates can still feel the burning hot temperature of welding torches and the smoke of those caught his eyes briefly whenever he wandered too close. He reached the last bed at the end of the tent where he lied down on his back and felt the mechanical arms of the bed began to dismantling his armor plates.

One by one, the pieces were removed leaving his synthetic skin and flesh exposed, he felt oddly cold and tingling when he was exposed like this as the robot arms were at work mending the damaged plates slowly. Soon enough, they were seen reassembling the armor plates back onto his body, they snapped into place before finally allowing him to get up and walk freely again.

Once he was outside of the tent, he was approached by Horus who whispered carefully to his ears cautiously. He nodded slowly to Horus message before finally crossed his arms, "Alright then, at least I get to see Christine again. Just don't tell them that." Said Anubis as Horus nodded and followed his brother to fetch Belisarius and Arminius for the meeting that was about to take place.

[hr]

2 hours later

Jason Grady was pacing back and forth within the Chimera's hilltop FOB, anxiously he waited for the arrival of Anubis before looking at the East for anything interesting to catch his eyes. As he waited however, he heard something, a rumbling in the sky with what appeared to be a bolt of light crashing down on the ground before the FOB.

With a loud bang followed by a rumble Jason Grady would see that Horus was had airlifted Anubis, Belisarius and Arminius all by himself, an interesting feat for mortal eyes as Horus walked up to Jason. "You called, I delivered. Here is Anubis and his bodyguards." Horus chirped with a cocky grin. "Thank you for coming, I've been waiting for you guys to arrive, so uh follow me please I got the meeting set up for you guys." Jason shook their hands as he then led them back into the command tent.

Once inside, Anubis and his entourage would see that Jason Grady, Joe Marshall and Nicolas Williams were present there in the tent to begin their discussion of the planned operation against Vipers. "Alright since we're all here let's begin." Said Jason as he let the entourage of Egyptian deities sat down.

Joe crossed his arms as they each arrived into the tent. He rested his back against his chair and lounge around. "Williams you think this wild card thing is a good idea? They are powerful, but coordinating forces of mortals between… that. That's not exactly what a lot of people signed up for." Joe said.

"Tough. This is still amazing. How have we not gotten a boost in recruitment when you get to be offered working with immortals, and then kaiju on top of that. Think about it!" Nicolas said while tapping his hand on his part of the table. "I want to see what else they do here since this is their game they are playing."

"Alright people, this is the trouble." Jason begins, clearing his throat while putting the satellite maps on a board for the briefing to commence. "Yesterday's hastily prepared and executed offensive saw some significant successes." He paused for a minute to let them all contemplate their gains, the brigadier general had a pointer in hands extended to its maximum length before circling its tip around the fortress of Tel-Megiddo. "This is the last stronghold of the enemy but they're not gonna let us walk in and have lunch there. They want to hold on to it for some reasons, we don't know why but we have to find out about it soon."

"Considering they detonated a nuclear warhead in Tel-Aviv, it's safe to say that they're planning to do the same to Megiddo if we strike at them." Joe added twiddling his fingers together as Jason pinned aerial recon photos on the board, "About 2 months ago, one of our spy bird caught this. It looks like a construction site, excavation or-" Before he could finish, he saw Anubis rising up in stark realization with the expression of a man fixated and focused to the point of sacrificing his awareness of the world.

"That's no construction, it's an archaeological dig." Anubis mused in morbid realization as he examined the top down photos. The tents around the courtyard highlighted with a ? by the intelligence officers who worked on it. "How do you know?" Joe asked Anubis curiously as Anubis pointed them to the long wires and cords running from a generator deep into the interiors of Megiddo via an entrance into the underground in the heart of the ruins.

Noticing the strange entrance never before seen entrance, Jason and Joe had a rather odd curious moment where they began to speculate and asked questions of the entrance and its possible destination deep down within the ancient Bronze Age fortress. "I think I know what it is. But it's something I will have to deal with personally. Brigadier General, you have any intel on additional nuclear warheads?" Anubis asked Jason, to which he nodded.

"Of course, here let me show you." Jason would then pin the last photo of the same site on the board, showing that in the 2 months span the operation going on at Megiddo has been expanded greatly. Noticeably with additional vehicle depots, helipads and barracks with tents for troops and numerous guards patrolling the area around the hillside fortress. Additionally, they saw numerous TELs parked in a triangle around the fortress itself with dug in troops guarding the positions. Surrounding those were SAM batteries ready to fire on any aircraft attempting to get into striking distance, these batteries were in turn supported by batteries of SPAAGs ready to shoot down enemies that come in too close.

"We double checked our SIGINT reports, they confirmed that Vipers stole an entire inventory of Israel's Nuclear Warhead Stock. According to Hera's interview of Jr last night, she confirms the report that Vipers now have in their hands somewhere around 40 nuclear warheads." Joe added up to this, hearing it made Belisarius shot up from his chair in stunted surprise asking Joe again for confirmation. "40 warheads? They could smuggle those weapons out of the country. Or use it for the missiles they have in Megiddo. But how can they fire all of those at once?"

"Well there is a way to do that. MIRV." Joe remarked, hearing the word caused Belisarius and Arminius to search their database for references before finally realizing what it meant. Their HUDs show them photographic references and documents detailing the power of multiple independent nuclear warheads striking at their targets over vast region. The petrified expression on Belisarius face and the gasp that escaped his mouth seems to seal the deal on his sense of urgency in the matter. "Then let's not dawdle around. Let us strike down our enemies while we still can." Belisarius stated to Joe, who nodded in agreement as Arminius stepped forth. "What's the plan of attack? We can't throw in an entire Legion of our men."

"Well in my experience, the scalpel is needed where the Hammer can't be applied. We'll HALO jump our forces into the AO, they'll have to be multiple small teams to surround and take the HQ complex of Megiddo." With a marker in his hand, the Brigadier General of the GDI began to mark the locations of airborne insertions around Megiddo, the Megiddo Airport, Gliding Center where most enemy air assets were located. The hilly forest area to the West of Megiddo and a Prison complex just south of the fortress.

"Then let us participate, I already have a battalion of Automatons under my command their presence might help bolster your forces capabilities." Belisarius volunteered eagerly with Arminius nodding to his comrade as he looked at Joe. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

"Glad to have you two onboard with this then. Let's get to our units and brief them on the op. We don't have much time." Joe stated to them, adjoining the meeting. But before he left, he gestured for Belisarius and Arminius to come with him, to which Belisarius nodded curiously before following suite out of a need to obey orders.

He found that Joe led Belisarius and Arminius into his personal tent in the encampment where Joe had a foldable table and char for him with shelves containing stacks of medical supplies as well as some photos of him and Grey dating back to a certain time in the 1990s. "Is something you require us to assist Joe Marshall?" Belisarius crossed his arms curiously as Joe turned around to face the two.

Joe sighed out as he picked up the photo of Grey and looked at it. He was being awfully quiet to the two, seemingly trying to hold back tears as he was heard sniffling, a barely audible sob escaped his mouth and it caught Belisarius audio sensors. His robot ears twitched and he felt an impulse to come forward and grip Joe's shoulder to provide him some comforts. "Joe, is something bothering you?" He asked concerningly.

Joe shook his head however as he wiped the tears away from his eyes with his left hand while holding the photo in his right hand. "It's… it's just… it's hard to explain. I don't know where to start, but I know that have to speak of it to you." Joe grumbled for a moment as he then sighed out to Belisarius. "Come now Marshall, calm yourself for a moment and speak as you see fit. Emotional distraught can't be your compass for rational clarity." Said Arminius in an instructive and cautious tone, to which Joe nodded to him.

"Yes of course… you see Belisarius, Walter Lenox he may have passed away not a long while ago to me. I thought that like anyone else I could somehow move on and not be held back by his death too much. That was until I met you." Joe went quiet for a moment as Belisarius glanced down to the photo in Joe's hand, looking at the photo and he could tell it was a personal family photo, something akin to the Roman family portraits that he was familiar with in his own household. "I see…" Belisarius uttered. "I mean not to cause you emotional pain Joe, I came to protect and help you in your efforts." He defended himself with his head slightly tilted downward.

"No you didn't do anything of that sort Belisarius, it's just that you remind me of Walter. Well you are him in a sense like you said. The way you act in the field, protecting our flank and dedication it feels like the old days when Lenox was still around." Joe replied now with the tears being more noticeable to Belisarius, prompting the robot to held him close, wrapping both his metal arms around Joe's well built, robust frame as he hugged the super soldier close to his robot chest.

"I understand what you mean Joe. Perfectly. It is neither easy nor comprehensible for me to know that my incarnation in this realm would do something as… well… I believe we know what happened. But I intend to make up for whatever ills he may have done." Belisarius spoke in a calming and reassuring tone to Joe, who in turn listened to the voice feeling Grey speaking back to him from beyond the graves. It was strange, eery and outright otherworldly but one that Joe would welcome.

"Thank you… Belisarius, may I ask if you could perhaps serve Orion Sword? You already have a Battalion of Orion Sword operators, deceased operators." Joe pleaded out, making a weary and uncertain request to Belisarius, he knew that it would be shot down but better to be out and out to one you trust than to keep secrets that would tear one's inside out. "I believe I can do so. But I must ask Anubis first for his approval." Hearing this would only further compel Joe to hug Belisarius back in response, he saw that there was a glimmer of hope in his life.

"If Anubis approves, it will be an honor to serve alongside you Joe Marshall. If the logic of Walter Lenox is Belisarius modern incarnation, I think that would make you mine." Arminius extend his hand to Joe, who in turn took it and pulled the robot wolf in patting him on the back. "It's an honor as well. At least I know if Anubis approves, we will have some time to know each other. Maybe knowing about Ancient Rome from the first hand eye witnesses as well." He mused the thought as they traded talks and laughs.

[hr]

His face was horror and nightmare embodied, a deformed collection of snake scales hastily slapped onto a still somewhat noticeable human face. His cheeks were now gray brown King Cobra scales with his eyes now reduced to a narrow slit while his mouth had to be sealed by a mouth restraint. His fork tongue could be seen slipping through the gaps of the iron bars of the mask, tasting the chemicals of the air.

Sitting on the other side of the table were Balthazar's interrogators, the Abyssal Scribe and Leandros who sat patiently across the table looking at Balthazar directly in the eyes. The Scribe walked around Balthazar patiently with his levitation allowing him to glide around on the ground. "You're bold and daring I would give you that Balthazar but tell me what makes you feel most bitter?" The Scribe asked in his suave voice as he flex his thigh muscles with his strides and press himself against the wall behind Balthazar.

"Treachery, backstabbing, inept subordinates. I think those three occupies my top 3 list, birdy." Said Balthazar tersely to the Scribe as he grumbled and struggled to break himself free of the zip cuffs holding his hands tied. The Scribe noticing this and zapped the Viper commander's back with his Evade and Condemned attack, rendering the commander frozen still in place. "Don't try anything funny here, unless you would like to have your insides donated. Forcefully." The Scribe crooned sinisterly to Balthazar's ears while winking at Leandros direction.

"What is Viper's contingency plan involving Megiddo?" Leandros asked nonchalantly with a detached impersonal robot voice. Balthazar made an annoyed grumble as he remained still like a statue as he gave his answer. "What we were meant to find and obtain a long time ago." He stated making Leandros tapping his finger on the metal table, at first it started out in a slow and rhythmic pace before picking up pace and speed. "What was so important to you then and now?" Leandros asked, to which Balthazar huffed out to him. "Really? You robots aren't that bright, are you? Maybe they should have assigned you to janitorial duty or something." This however only net a further intrusion of his now exposed body by the Abyssal Scribe.

The Scribe's palm saw a biosynthetic tendril crawl out and slabber itself on the table, the appendage then slither and move closer to Balthazar's own hand as it began to wrap itself around his wrist, the tip of the tendril morphed into a sharp and pointy appearance as it began to drill into his palm, causing Balthazar to grunt in pain and began to clench his teeth in response. "Aaaaaagh! Aaaaaaagh! The Ark! The Ark of Covenant! We want it back to our hands!"

The Scribe paused his drilling and let out a soft hum in thought as he looked to Leandros curiously. "Little One, did your inventor inform you of the Ark of Covenant's exact location?" He saw Leandros shook his head, "Negative, my database doesn't have any references on the Ark of Covenant." The Scribe stroked his chin finding the revelation interesting to hear as he continued the drilling deeper into the length of Balthazar's arm. "Well then how do you know the Ark is there? And why do you need it?" With blood began to pour out and the pain was gripping his brains more and more, Balthazar didn't have time on his side and knew he must do something to save himself. "We traced the Ark thanks to one of my subordinate. We need it to legitimize our rule over this land! That's all there is! Now do it, finish me and get those fuckers Jasper and Casper who backstabbed me!" Balthazar growled in pain struggling to control his blood lost against the spell of the Scribe.

"Hmmm this is interesting, we might keep you alive, for now. Whoever your subordinate are, he knows where to find the Ark and the timing suggest he knows a bit too much to be a normal mook." The Scribe assessed the information as he retracted the tentacle back into his palm as he stepped over to Leandros and knelt down to his level whispering to his ear. "Little One, if I may indulge my thought, but their fixation on the Ark of Covenant may not be shared by the other two, Casper and Jasper."

Hearing this Leandros nodded slightly to the Scribe as he projected a holographic map from his palm showing the locations of known Vipers activities since the beginning of the conflict. "Hostile activities cluster around paranormal sightings and locations of religious importance. Possible ulterior motive in play." Leandros mused as the Scribe tapped his index finger on the map and linked the locations together ranging from the Sinai Peninsula, to the areas around the Negev desert all the way through Jerusalem all the way to areas around Tel-Megiddo. "Well well well, just as I thought, they're interested in Wepwawet. But why would they? Hmmm tell me my good reptilian hybrid, before I disembowel your innards, what exactly do your kin want with the Opener of the Way?"

Balthazar groaned and rolled his eyes to this, frustrated at the incessant questioning by the Scribe and Leandros towards him. He then looked at the Scribe's torso and head before gesturing with an eye expression in response. "Look at yourself the answer is right there. But hell if I care, I want the Ark first and foremost, Wepwawet's tomb is just the Means to my Ends." Balthazar remarked, to this the Scribe grinned and patted Leandros's shoulder to follow him out.

Exiting the container they used as a holding cell for Balthazar out to the open air, they were greeted by the sight of Thoth and Set who stood there waiting for answers anxiously. "Reporting finding in audio recording mode." Leandros held up his left wrist and tapped a holographic button, playing the interrogation to Set and Thoth from beginning to end. The last bits however caught Thoth and Set's ears in the most concerning way possible as Leandros looked up to them. "My hypothesis is they are intending to create a Robot Deity to serve them. One from our own Pantheon." Leandros stated monotonously. "However the exact means they have to detain the soul of a deity, a deceased deity remains elusive to me." He nonchalantly commented.

Set looked at Leandros with a hard metal stare. This news did not sit too well with him. He growled and let his optics glow a bright red filling up with anger hearing this. Making slaves out of powerful god beings. Not just any either. One of the Egyptian pantheon, and his own blood this time. He looked back at where Leandros had come from and spoke in a low tone. "Thoth i certainly hope your doppelganger knows how to torment a mortal soul. Since if i were to go in there now I would be unable to contain my destruction to that room… They think they can produce destruction. Hmph. I can make a worse outcome they can only hope to achieve. Hellish outcome…" Set warned.

Thoth nodded quickly to Set taking his word, and quickly went back to Leandros. "That can't be possible though. Since entity has remained elusive even to us as deities. Too powerful. There isn't anyways i could think of them trying to contain him. If they could they would also need to-"

Set looked to Thoth and made a deep guttural growl. "Don't give them any ideas. That is my blood they are using Thoth… refer to him with respect I couldn't have possibly granted him. All of this lays on me, and i will be the one to destroy them." Set stated.

"If I may Thoth, but if they wish to capture the soul of a dead deity, a dead War and funeral deity no less, they would need someone from the Olden days of the Age of Chaos. Like say… a Primordial?" The Scribe cracked a grin on his beak while Leandros remained deadpan crossing his arms and tapped his foot in thinking. The robot Lucario didn't seem at all phased by the revelation as he pondered his database for intel. "Known Primordial deities: Neith, Ra, Nox, Izanami, Thoth, Kek to name a few. The latter had been recorded to be an enemy to the Egyptian Pantheon and marked as traitor."

"Ahh of course. Hehehehe. You smart adorable little machine you." The Scribe cackled as he gave a noogie to Leandros's head and caressed his cheek with a tentacle from the Scribe's palm. "I recall from the memories I share with you Thoth that Kek was in fact the traitor to the Egyptian Pantheon. The creator of Apep of all things, it seems the question of who has been solved. Let's not dawdle and give them time to make us answer the why and how later." The Scribe cheekily smirked to Thoth and winked as he walked away morphing into a jet black mechanical ibis taking into the air and flew off to meet with Anubis. "We should be going, regroup with Anubis for his orders." Leandros suggested to Thoth and Set.

Set shook his head out and grumbled. "Very well… I trust he'll at least make something good of this situation…" Set said again looking at Thoth. "He's practically brother to him. Therefore a lot of violence will come from him as result of their planning. Our family is at war once again. Traitors are going to be tried. Will you judge them arbiter?" Set questioned as a challenge.

"Certainly. These are trying times Set. For you and what you are going through. I'll keep with my responsibilities. But as will you. Don't go overboard. And i'll be sure to keep the others in line. But now there is a greater risk. Even if they have Kek they could still try and take the others. Ra for example. Everyone must keep up on how they guard themselves." Thoth said.

[hr]

14:00 Hours, East of Tel-Aviv

Time was of the essence for most parties involved, Anubis was sitting alone on a hilltop looking down at the road snaking through the valleys, he saw his Jackal Guards, robots and still fleshy Jackal souls marching and driving their ways to the staging point. Next to him was Horus who sat down with his wings folded behind his back laying down relaxing next to Anubis. "Well brother, it seems that we are nearing the reclamation of Canaan. What do you think of this victory?" Horus asked Anubis chirping with excitement.

His older brother however was apparently not taking the "Reclamation" bit lightly while chewing on an apple in his left hand. "Not victory. Do you know what this place has become Horus?" He asked. Horus blunk his shiny optics and stood up next to Anubis cautiously. "What do you mean? We have a pretext to-" He was interrupted however as Anubis sighed out and cleared his throat. "Because Horus, not only have we just had a nuclear bomb wiped out a city, but at this point there's no reason to take and hold this stretch of land called Canaan anymore." Anubis stated sternly.

"Once it was the gateway to Egypt, the surest and safest passage there is. But everyone want to control it for a bloody city they deigned Holy and divine. A MacGuffin of Mortals, we don't need it anymore since mortals can fly with wings like yours now." Said Anubis, causing Horus to take a moment to look back at his own wings on his back. They were mighty for sure, large and sturdy with the metallic feather made from synthetic materials allowing him great aerodynamic maneuvers. "I see… but don't take things too personally Anubis, you are my brother and let's not forget, you are betrothed to a certain someone and her son is your son as well. Let's not get distracted from the eventual reunion." Anubis nodded to Horus reminder as the two stood up from the hilltop and went back to their encampment.

There the robots and Orion Sword members gathered, they organized themselves around an airfield with VTOLs provided by the GDI, V-44X stealth Blackfish aircraft. The troops were given hangars large enough to house them and store their supplies, there they began to rest and recover from their march while their commanders went over various maps and aerial recon photos of their battlefield, Megiddo. Some GDI Servicemen were seen by a priest conducting a sermon, praying for their survival.

As more robots arrived at the base, Anubis and Horus came over to the base's airfield area where the VTOLs were parked in a ready to fly row before entering a hangar that was being used as a command center where various personnel, mostly humans were staffed for computers and radar screens. Some were monitoring the satellites sweeping over the Earth taking photos and real time surveillance of the region. "You stay here, this is where your leadership would work. I have a friend to meet." Anubis instructed Horus who nodded to him and patted his shoulder.

Anubis would then walk over to the hangar that was being used as a barrack, inside he found the battalion of robot wolves from Orion Sword were resting with their human friends and partners from their past lives. He walked into the hangar finding Earl Lupis resting with Charlie and Leandros. Anubis sat down next to Earl opposite from Leandros and Charlie. "Hey there everyone, how are you doing?" He asked awkwardly to them, Charlie stretched popping his joints.

"Just fine, dad, I guess. I heard you're going to join the next deployment personally right?" Anubis nodded to Charlie's question as he sat with his legs wrapped in a meditative stance. "Indeed, the area has paranormal activities, not only that but a deceased deity ghost is in the area so I have to be with you to protect you just in case." Said Anubis as he then turned to Earl. "I am curious about one thing Earl, what's your role this time around? Infantry or Pilot? Wanna decide with a coin?" Anubis asked Earl with a slight smile on his face.

Earl gave a hearty chuckle and pulled out a coin from his own dimension. It was a quarter, but instead of George Washington it was an otter dressed in a powdered wig, and fitting clothes for the time. "George Ottington" the text wrote. He paces the object under his thumb and flicked it upwards allowing the silver coin to spin around in the air. High enough earl could say what he wanted. "Heads for piloting tails for infantry." he said just as the coin came down on the ground.

As the coin fell down on the ground, clanging and rotating around from the flip it revealed to be Heads for Earl, to which Anubis chuckled. "Nice one Earl, guess you're born to fly like Horus." His chuckle would soon turn into a hearty laugh as he patted Earl's back and hugged him in. Charlie let out a soft smile to the sight as Leandros sat next to Charlie watched them. "When we move out, I'll need you on the gunship stand by. The area is a bit thick with AA so Charlie and Leandros will take care of those for you first." Said Anubis as he looked at Earl's face.

"Great. I'll be there then. Lets see if Horus can keep up with this old dog then." Earl boasts with a chuckle afterwards. He snapped to Anubis and made his way back to where he had it landed. Though the first stop he made was his own living quarters for a little something for the trip. Once he had gotten there he sifted around for what he needed until he pulled out a yellow case of cigars. "Shouldn't have these until after the victory, buuuut. I think I can enjoy blowing the hell out of some baddies." Earl said.

"You know with me on the field, Victory is assured. After all…" Anubis eyes would glance down to Earl's robot rear and he cracked a wryly smile on his face as he gave Earl's rumps a firm grab and inch closer to Earl. "If I don't win, how will I ever enjoy my evenings with you again?" He joked to Earl before let out a hearty laugh and hugged Earl in, kissing him on his cheeks and lips while Charlie blushed and look away in embarrassment. "Do not be embarrassed. You indulged in these with Unit Romano before." Leandros reminded Charlie who in turn stood up and walked away with him while Anubis and Earl were kissing each other passionately.

Charlie and Leandros walked over to find Nicolas Williams with his Rangers and their armor, equipment. This enticed his curiosity as he came over to Nicolas Williams first and asked the human feeling odd that he seems familiar to him. "Hey uh excuse me but… are you Nicolas Williams? Because I think that means you're this universe version of Nicolas Pawilliams right?" Charlie asked curiously.

Nicolas looked at Charlie with an awkward expression on his face. It was mainly the fact he was a wolf still. He had a lot of time to get used to it, but his name being mentioned like that didn't seem to sit well with him. Nicolas didn't even know what his counterpart even looked like. "Uhhhh . No I'm the only Nicolas Williams. Unless you go on Google and look up my name im the only one you'll be meeting. I don't know who turned me into one of you, and I really don't need to know since this whole situation is crazy enough. Alternate realms I don't think ever got well fit with me since it's just crazy confusion here." Nicolas said.

"Uhhh well it's just that I met you before. Well lion you in Zootopia. Here I got a photo of him." Charlie's left thigh compartment opened up revealing what appeared to be a hologram projector with a circular dish like appearance. He activated the device and projected the image of what appeared to be a robot lion with a pair of HF Katana blades. The caption read "Nicolas Pawilliams. Roboticized on the Tartarus, Leo Combat Chassis Model No. 0001." To Nicolas when he saw this it felt odd and nauseating when his eyes began to see visions. Like an overlapping existence of sort, his mechanical prosthetic arms flashed and changed for a moment into metal robot lion paws before changed back to normal.

Nicolas by comparison was just a regular human. A prosthetic arm on his right hand, but over all he was less built in terms of body compared to his lion counterpart. "Oh my god they turned me into a furry…" Nicolas said. The conflicting realities and seeing his face on that of an animalistic body made him question a lot of things in his head. Silence was all Charlie got for a minute or two while he stared at Charlie. Or past him.

His moment of silence did not help the situation improved, when Leandros seems to add fuel to the flame in a rather inappropriate way, or due to his lack of sensitivity and awareness of people's emotion and how they take information. "Datalogs show that Nicolas Pawilliams of the PFRO was subjected to anal rape by hostile A.I construct known as Alice. The ensuing process saw his body roboticized and enhanced but mentally disturbed. Possible PTSD from rape, which is understandable." Said Leandros, the information that was fed to Nicolas however seem like a heart attack to him.

Nicolas used both his bionic and biological hands to cover up his face and bend down. The two of them heard him make a loud yell that was mixed into a hard groan. An obvious hard cringe, but mainly hearing some part of him somewhere had been violated and turned into a robot. "I thought being fucked by the Ray the dog lizard was enough." he rose up his prosthetic and gave the two of them a hard frown. "I'm lucky now to only have this, and i still haven't weaponized it!" Nicolas shouted. He didn't even know what they wanted from him yet, btu the constant mention of a doppelganger kept him on edge. If only he knew how that doppelganger felt as well.

"Hey easy now, calm down Nic. Your Lion version felt the same way when he was Roboticized. He was lucky to have me and Anubis helping him to recover from what was done to him." Charlie held his hands up defensively to Nicolas as he slowly calmed the man down from his initial outburst. "I thought I get to know you first since well I already met and know your Zootopia counterpart. I heard from Anubis that he knows your ancient Spartan counterpart as well, a guy named Nikolaos." Said Charlie in a a matter of fact manner to Nicolas, the fact that the Irish-American had a Spartan ancestor seems to boggle his mind and even outright contradict what he considered to be logical.

Nicolas perked his head up when he heard mention of a Spartan relative. "Wait? How? In this universe or whatever place Anubis comes from? The farthest we can trace ourselves right now is Viking era, but after that was medieval. But I know for sure i'm related to mafia guys. You want proof?" Nicolas asked them.

Charlie shook his head and spun his hands defensively to Nicolas as he slowly inched away from Nicolas. "Uh no no thanks. I think I get the gist from your Lion version already. I'll see myself out… okay… see ya on the field." Said Charlie as he and Leandros slowly crept away from Nicolas before running away to their robot quarters of the hangar leaving Nicolas to contemplate on the idea of his robot lion version. Jason had often joked that Nicolas looks like he had a lion mane for hair, now with the revelation the joke seems to have taken a whole new meaning.

"Yeah I'm a fucking lion Jason. You move around like a bendy otter though anytime one of the girls melts out with their WOOOING!" Nicolas shouted at himself. Alone he didn't have anyone to talk to, and to others it was clear he wasn't much for keeping heads thoughts in his head. The situation getting increasingly hostile and weird wasn't going well for him.


	17. Chapter 17: Incursio

Chapter 17: Incursio

June 16th, 2034, 04:00

Tel-Megiddo, Israel

The weather had been rather unnatural with meteorologists reporting possible light snow and light wintry condition and possible fog denser than it should be in the early hours of dawn. It didn't sit well with anyone, not even Hera or the trio of Rex Units that were her nephews and niece.

For the Kaiju they would have to traverse on land towards the objectives but shy away from direct approaches in order to give off the impression of a spoiling attack or raids into the enemy lines to disrupt enemy organizations and keep them away from the main strike team.

And surely enough the first strike teams were inserted into the area under the cover of darkness and fog. The V-44X Blackfish VTOLs flew over their LZs around Megiddo, dropping off the strike teams often in small units of 6 to 8 men at best. Once their troops were deployed they flew off and headed back to the safety of their Airbases.

One of those strike teams composed of Belisarius, Arminius, Leandros, Charlie, Anubis, Set and two other robot wolves air dropping into the area. Once on the ground, they automatically proceeded to regroup on a hilly area West of Megiddo however problems began to arise, as he was conducting a head count in the forest, Belisarius found that he was lacking two. He looked around, Arminius and the deities were present. His two robot back ups were "Sniffing" forward areas for threats. Charlie and Leandros were missing from the team, therefore he was expecting the worst.

"Damn it, I hope those two aren't in trouble or something. They can't defend themselves long behind enemy lines." Said Anubis with a scowl developing on his facial armor plates. Set gave Anubis's head a light tap to dispel the anger and frustration, "Calm down son, do not forget how we see beyond what our eyes show." the Typhon God of Chaos reminded Anubis before gesturing for Belisarius to go ahead and regroup with the scouts.

"Now then, let us refresh our memories on powers of the Gods. Riiiise." Set uttered in a growl with his hand held forward, from the ground arise a pair of clones of Set made of sand. The clones all had a halberd of Set in hands as they look around before running forward to scout out the area.

With that Set led them forward strolling along the footpath of the area, not even bothering to keep himself low or hide from patrols. Instead he simply stroll along confident that his spawns have them covered while then Anubis and his robot warriors followed behind, keeping themselves low to avoid being caught by wandering patrols.

Soon enough, a patrol jeep was seen moving through the wooded areas with its headlights on, beaming around the bendy curves of the road. The vehicle came to a stop however with the driver and his fellow Viper Operatives disembarked to begin their patrol on foot in the more densely wooded area.

"Contact front, enemy vehicle." CLU-09734 called out the targets to his commander, hearing this saw Set's eyes flashed red before sprint forward and lunged his epsilon axe forward. "Spawns, strike!" he growled in a guttural sound, this sent the spawns to dash at the patrol, slamming into two and dazed the driver and another.

Set would then teleport to one of his spawns, using his ability to conjure sandstorm to slow down the two enemies in his sight and swung his axe, lobbing their heads off in one go. "Strike hard, strike fast. No mercy." Set uttered as he licked his axe blade and clean it of the blood stains. "Enjoying bloodshed too much, aren't we?" Anubis remarked slightly disgusted by his father's macabre taste. "Just doing what I have to do." Set retorted as they continued.

Not far from where they were, Charlie and Leandros were seen entangled in the trees, blown off course by choppy winds, which ended up having Charlie tied up to a tree and his parachute being hung by branches and twigs. Leandros had much less difficulties than Charlie due to his smaller frames. The robot Lucario simply slashed the wires and branches holding him up before falling to the ground, landing gracefully with a thud.

Leandros would then sprint towards the tree Charlie was entangled on and made a quick parkour climb up to Charlie's height before gently igniting his laser tonfa blades and slashed off the wires, causing Charlie to the ground, slamming himself in the process.

"Ouch. I'm okay but would it hurt you to just help me landing?" Charlie grunted and gritted his teeth annoyed by Leandros apparent disregard for the safeties of allies. "Perhaps I can entertain the idea of retrying the airborne training course." Leandros crudely remarked.

As Charlie stood up from the ground, dusting the snow off of his shoulders, he heard the sound of guards and patrolmen converging on his location, this forced him to dolphin dive into the nearest shrub to hide. To his horror however, instead of seeing the usual lots of humanoid soldiers, he was treated to the sight of armored Naga warriors. Snake like creatures with human arms but the rest of their bodies remain defyingly serpent like.

Their torso section, if one could spot from the elongated noodle string like appearance of serpents, was clad in futuristic armor with steel segmented plates and utility belt, harness webbing around their bodies. They also had a redesigned helmet with crimson red optic on their faces. They appeared to brandish captured IMI Tavor rifles, no doubt taken from unfortunate IDF servicemen.

"This is just great, mutant super soldiers? Not what I want to have." Said Charlie with a grimace on his face as he grit his teeth trying to contain his fear. Only to see the enemy began to examine the branches on the ground, the twigs and crushed leaves with suspicion. These were professional trackers no doubt judging by the way they spread out and began to search around the bushes and shrubs.

"Found anything yet?" One of them asked, sounding muffled and almost mechanical by the void modulator of his mask. "Negative but keep your eyes out, the intruder could be anywhere." another shouted back as he slithered into the bushes hunting for Charlie.

When Charlie found that he was too close to comfort, he took the opportunity and slam a punch right into his face, throwing the serpent back but at the price of alerting his position to the enemies. The other serpents began to slither around him, trying to surround and overwhelm him, "Awww man, looks like Anubis is gonna throw me back into the marshland again." Charlie sighed out as he then tossed up multiple ice pellets around him, creating a circular minefield radiating frostbite to the serpents. The reptiles being cold blooded felt frightened by the icy cold chill and backed away.

Eyeing back and forth, seeing his enemies hesitant and with the cold being his element, Charlie proceeded to grab his batons and slapped them together to form an ice cudgel before dashing at one of the snakes. He swung his cudgel slamming into its neck, shattering the serpent's spine before making a kick to its chin with his kneecap.

As the serpent was falling back, Charlie pounced off of its chest like a launchpad and make an aerobic flip behind a second serpent. He quickly lunged the tip of his cudgel into its back, freezing it instantly. Seeing the robot arctic wolf's skill in combat the other mutant snakes slithered back opening fire wildly at him. Not content with letting his preys escape, Charlie give chase, trying to catch up and finish them but he soon noticed that Leandros was missing from the engagement.

That was when he noticed the blue silhouette of Leandros running and leaping from one tree branch to another, he soon descended on the fleeing serpents with his laser tonfa blades unsheathed, the blades thrust through the heads of two serpents, dropping them at an instance.

"Nice to see you joining, at least I didn't monopolize the killing." Charlie snarked sarcastically as Leandros disengaged the tonfa blades and stood up from the stomped corpses. "My combat function must be certified. Our objective remains." Charlie nodded before gesturing for Leandros to lead the way for him.

The two of them navigated their way through the thick forest and low light conditions, keeping themselves low before eventually arriving at the remains of the jeep patrol, there Charlie found sands and footprints on the ground leading away towards the Airfield of Megiddo. "Well I guess we know where to find them now. Let's go." He gestured for Leandros to follow him as the two ran along the footsteps, staying in the exact footprints of Anubis to avoid giving away the numbers of the group.

[hr]

Further away to the East of Megiddo, under the cover of fog and snow were Hera and Jr in their staging position with Hera sitting and observing the area ahead of her using the zoom function of her optics. She appeared to have her arm wrapped around Jr's own arm as she kept their distance intimately close to one another. But for Hera it was all played for laughs to her as she pretended to be on a date with Jr.

"I'm like so glad that they paired us up with each other. It makes this lone, cold and shivering evening sooooo much more bearable for moi." She giggled to Jr while holding his arm much to his chagrin. "Uh Hera, be careful with what you said because Ogra is just halfway across the world right now." Said Jr with a stressed out nervous expression on his face. "Oh don't worry I'm pretty sure that she'll understand how we need each other to 'Warm' up for the out of season winter." she purred playfully to Jr as she cuddled up to them both much to his annoyance.

But they soon felt the ground around them shake in quick successions of quakes, causing Jr and Hera to look around confusedly trying to decipher the source of the quake. Soon enough Hera and Jr could see the silhouette of something moving around the fortress of Megiddo. Towering humanoid figures with dark bronze color on their body moving in packs of 5 each. Hera in her curiosity went closer to see for herself what were they only to discover these were towering giant bronze statues. Living and moving around like a squad.

They each sported a Korinthos helmet of Classical Hellenic hoplites, each one of these were armed with a short stabbing sword of the Greek Hyspapistai. Not only that but they seem to have an eerie marionnette like movement as they twist and turn their heads around scanning the horizon and fog for anything suspicious. "Uh...kids I think we got lost into a sword and sandal movie set, because your auntie here just spotted a pack of 5 bronze statues. Yeah Talos bronze statues from that classic Sword and Sandal movie." Hera reported profusely as she observed the movements of the statue.

Shiryu's children were reasonably confused just as much as Hera when they saw the sight of the walking bronze statues with Zillaryu making a thick gulp on the coms. "That's not possible… how could those statues move without falling apart?" He asked confusedly, being unable to comprehend the physics defying creature before him. "No way mang! Look at those things it's like we're in Jason and the Argonaut this is so much cooler!" Sicario reply excitedly as he attempted to hack them remotely using his helmet's ability to mimic the enemy security authentication protocols. Only to find that he picked up none of the signals he craved. "Aww man really? Giant bronze statues and no WiFi? Is this even the 21st century anymore?" He asked rhetorically and huffed.

"I think we'll have bigger complications then just no WiFi kids. Any coms with friendly elements?" She checked the radio frequency carefully, hearing nothing but static with VHF, UHF and satellite. She tried alternative channels, only to find that they too were jammed and scrambled. Being a Godzillian and trained in communication discipline, she knew that in these situations there shortwave radio signals were the best options and she had to take action with her nephews and niece. "Alright guys if you can hear me, it's go time. Jr and I are going to stomp those garden decoration pieces. You kids stop those missiles from taking off then wreck the source of the jamming."

"Got it." Pax replied then came his siblings. "Those mamacita won't know what hit them!" Sicario excitedly replied. "I'll do a double shift." Christine finished the conversation as the Rex Units then began to assume their positions, crawling into striking distance of the mobile ballistic missile launchers.

Hera and Jr in turn crouched down and approached the Talos statues guarding the area. As they came close enough, Hera and Jr lighted their dorsal spines and charged up their atomic blast to land a synch shot on their enemies. Jr and Hera would then fire off their atomic breath attacks, landing two shots on two statues, obliterating them instantly.

But when they shift the beams to sweep the others, they held up their shields and locked themselves into Hoplite formation seemingly able to reflect their combined beam into the air. "Hey that's bullshit cheapshot there! Are they using cheat code or something?" Hera pout and blunk in absolute shock at the sight of bronze statues able to deflect hers and Jr's atomic beams with their Hoplite shields.

"What the hell?! Those are statues! STATUES! BRONZE STATUES! How is that even possible? Oh shit they're coming at us now! Who the hell made these guys!?" Jr flabbergasted as he then dodged a blade swung nearly chopped him into half from his head down.

As the heavy blade slammed into the ground, he then swung his tail, striking at the face of the bronze statue, throwing the statue staggering back. Hera then tag team with Jr using her jump jet boosters to hop into the air and slammed her feet on the bronze statue's chest before giving it a bicycle kick and hop off.

The Rex Units quickly sprung into action with Pax perching on a hilltop and his prosthetic legs elevating him higher to gain an advantageous shot off on the launcher. With his kaiju sized M16A4 in hand, he fired off well aimed shots at the launchers, demolishing the TELs in three precise semi auto shots. His siblings in turn were seen quickly tackling the statues, throwing them off balance before they could swing a blade at Jr or Hera.

"Come on guys! Put them down with your atomic breaths, it can't be that hard right?" Christine spoke before firing her atomic blast at the face of a statue she was pinning down, for a moment she saw the statue's face obliterated by her atomic breath attack, only for the pieces of singed and burned bronze to reform into its head again. "Wait what? How is that possible?" Christine sputtered before jumping away from the statue.

"I guess we know how hard it really is now." Hera remarked sarcastically as she and Jr backed away from the statues, the two adult Godzillians and their Rex Units regrouped as the statues rose up from the ground dusting off sand, dirt, snow and plants off of them. They then marched towards the group preparing to strike at the Godzillians.

"Come on guys, fire Hyperlaser on those bastards!" Pax then opened up his chest panels with his siblings doing the same thing unveiling their Hyperlaser and charged up their shots. They then fired the Hyperlasers blowing through the statues and threw the group of bronze titans back into a pile by a hillside. Pax and his siblings sighed out exasperated by the supernatural enemies they have just defeated. "Well I hope that takes care of them, for now at least. I just hope we won't see anymore of them." Said Hera as she then gave each of them a kiss on their head.

"Alright then kids, let's rampage their base a little bit, I got a little grudge with some dino bitch I need to settle." Hera gritted her teeth as she dispatched Shiryu's triplets out to rampage sections of the base while she and Jr stomped the fortifications around the airfield of Megiddo.

At that same time, the robot wolves were converging on the fortress itself, seeing their allies have sprung the assault ahead of schedule meaning that they must move forward with their own plan. Before they commenced their assault Charlie and Leandros were seen rejoining the main force as they then advanced down the hill towards the enemy compound.

"There you two are, where have you been?" Anubis frowned at Charlie and Leandros as the two slipped into a foxhole. "Well beside getting lost, blown off course by the winds and ran into some snakes, nothing much." Charlie sarcastically remarked with a bit of anxiousness shown on his face. "Next time you two are using the same parachute. Now come on we need to take this airfield." The Jackal deity sighed out as he then gestured for his forces to begin set up their assaults.

Some robots who were carrying standard issued general purpose machine guns quickly lying prone on the ground with their weapons, the M240Bs borrowed from the GDI trained on the sight of the tarmac building and the long stretch of the runway.

The marksman team set up inside a treeline on an elevated position, their view of the airfield was obstructed however by the airplane hangars. They might still see the enemies digging in with their vehicles moving around the runway patrolling for possible threats that might approach them.

The regular squads of Assault Bots or CLUs and their commanding officers CLU-Is were congregating around the runway's edge preparing to spring their assault. "Objective is to take this airfield and open up the corridor for reinforcements. Don't get bogged down and keep moving." Anubis reminded his robots on their cyber comms as he observed the airfield, he noticed a pair of anti air artilleries parking on the runway, these weren't Russian made models, but were never before seen models and their presence worried him.

The vehicle chassis were wedge shaped with a sharp diamond wedge front and a rectangular box like length similar to BMP-2 and BMP-3 models. The turrets were clearly 30mm autocannons for air defense with radars to help spot and track targets but at the cost of making the vehicle vulnerable to SEAD airstrikes. Anubis lowered his head down and gestured for Belisarius and Arminius to prepare themselves to fire the first shots.

The two robots unveiled their shoulder missile racks and crouched down to assume firing positions. Their HUDs locked onto the AAAs with a crosshair locking onto the vehicles showing an augmented reality trajectory of the missiles being fired and their flight path towards the targets.

Once their missiles were ready, the two immediately opened fire, sending volleys of missiles flying into the air and spiral down on the AAAs and destroying the vehicles right away. They saw plumes of black smoke rising up from orange fireballs.

Once that was done, the marksman teams immediately opened up on the enemy lookouts on the tarmac, dropping enemy snipers instantly while the GPMGs were opening up on scrambling infantries to prevent a coordinated defense from being formed.

"Push forward! Go go go!" Arminius ordered a robot squad under his command as they maneuver with him to take cover behind a trolley cart before suppressing enemy troops hiding inside a hangar.

Taking advantage of suppressive fire, one of the robot wolves demonstrated personal initiative by loading the grenade launcher module of his assault rifle and fired off a 40mm HE grenade at his enemies. The resulting explosion started a chain reaction, not only did the enemies blow up into red mist and chunks of flesh tossed everywhere. But the hangar's ammo, fuel and bombs for the YF-23 Black Widow parked in it set ablaze, burning the hangar inside out.

"Registering above parameter damages inflicted to hostile infrastructure." The robot wolf uttered dryly, not quite able to form his own reaction or opinion beyond a dry assessment. "Lost of storage infrastructure but not quite a complete lost to everything, yet." Arminius remarked to the grenadier robot before gesturing the squad under his command to take position and clear out the remaining parts of the airfield.

Anubis in turn led Belisarius towards the tarmac building, with the jackal deity kicking down the door followed by Belisarius tossing in a frag grenade into the building. The explosion was quickly followed by a lighting assault with Belisarius instead of using his assault rifle, quickly drew out his laser gladius and power dash forward. The first Viper he saw was impaled through his torso with the hot laser blade tore through his chest cavity.

His age old Roman Legionaire training taught Belisarius to quickly withdraw his blade and let the corpse fall to the floor and rot by itself.

He then continued his way upstairs with the enemies hiding on the second floor trying to bash him with the buttstocks of their assault rifles, only for him to quickly thrust his blade through their chin piercing through their skull and brains.

One of the Viper warriors sprinted at Belisarius and body slammed him to no avail, barely push the robot aside, only for Belisarius to punch him in his face, sending him flying out of the tarmac window and crashed to the ground with a loud thud and bone cracking sounds.

"All clear up there?" Anubis asked nonchalantly on his cybercoms, followed by Belisarius replied confirming what he was expecting. "Affirmative Anubis. The area is secured but they'll be back. We should take our time to establish contact with our allies for reinforcements." Anubis nodded to this as he then gestured with his hand for Leandros to get to the second floor and begin working on the radio equipment of the tarmac.

[hr]

Horus was staring attentively at the holographic tactical map of the battle site, the Crown Prince was very troubled with his stomach turn quite a bit. He was most especially worried for Anubis and Belisarius knowing that they were his family operating in an area where the weather had deteriorated badly, not to mention the numerous danger of being surrounded by enemies outnumbering them ten-to-one without communication for reinforcements or much needed fire support to push back their enemies.

He observed the overlay with an obsessive gaze while his talons were tapping the glass gently, he expected the worst to happen and hoped for the best. The area before his eyes were wine red in color overlay with the various NATO style rectangular icons move about denoting enemy forces on patrol. His concern however didn't last very long when he noticed that the airfield of Megiddo was marked green in a sudden, the robot falcon hunched over and and pinch at the screen, pulling up a satellite view of the airfield, showing him that the robots have taken over the airfield and were now digging in, deploying whatever equipment they brought with them to dig into the seized prize.

He then picked up a radio broadcast transmission from the airfield apparently being broadcasted by Anubis himself, the prince quickly tapped on the icon to answer the call and saw an avatar of Anubis face silhouette painted in gold over a purple background. "Objective Garden is secured. I repeat objective Garden is secured. Dispatch reinforcement now, over." Horus nodded to the call as he began to circle his talons around the reinforcements then tapped on the airfield to set waypoints for them.

The force was quite a massive strike force, perhaps a full division to take on the on coming enemies. Multiple C-17 Globemaster III jumbo jets were seen taking off of the runway of the airfield before flying towards the Airfield, followed by a fleet of V-120 Valkyrie VTOLs performing tactical airlift duties, followed by various Blackfoot gunships and jets taking off for the battle of Megiddo.

[hr]

Time was not on their side, and fortune was fickle as always. He counted the number of troops they have at the airfield, a small force of just a Battalion under his personal command. They were expected to hold off an onslaught of a larger force. Regiment? Brigade? Possibly Division? There were too many variables but the fact of the matter was that they needed to dig in and hold the line. If they lose the runway then they will lose their stake in this battle.

Belisarius was looking at a makeshift model of the airfield, drawn on the dirt of the runway with scraps of tins, bent boxes, and a bunch of spent shells to use as landmarks improvised on the fly. Around him were the robot wolves looking down at the model to memorize their battle plans to hold off the incoming assault. "Alright then, we have the Airfield in our paws but they'll be back." He began with the robots nodding. "They'll be coming from Nazareth and Migdal, the perimeter must hold at all costs. We have landmines set up around the airfield in two layers. We'll also have our ATGM systems set up to snipe incoming tanks. Prioritize the tanks and IFVs first since they will chew us up." Belisarius instructed to the robots carefully as they nodded to him, confirming that they knew their roles enough.

Arminius standing next to Belisarius looking at the robots stiff faces, they knew combat and have experiences by this point but some were still visibly skeptical about their motivation in the battle. "Your enemies have proven themselves to be stubborn foes. But at the end of the day they are still nothing but unwashed barbarians at our gates." Arminius began, putting his booming Roman oratory skills to use to rally the robots and motivate them.

"You've seen combat against them before. You've fought well and squashed their every tricks, today they come at you in desperate attempts to avenge their failings. But they face you, the finest soldiers the world has ever seen!" He pounded his chest with his right hand causing a clank, motivating the robots to give a steely expression.

"Now, look to the defenses, defend your brothers and lay your foes to the ground where they belong!" hearing these words made the robots nodded to him and Belisarius and gave their salutes, strangely enough instead of a modern military salute, their programming caused them to use a Roman salute instead to which Arminius returned in kind before they were scrambling to cover the defenses. "Come on Belisarius, it's time to do what we do best." Arminius patted his mate's shoulder as the two ran off to the northern edge of the airfield to command the defenses there.

Around the airfield and Megiddo's remains, the fortress saw Shiryu's children arraying in the center with Hera on the far right flank while Jr was on the far left. Each one spaced out to 500 meters apart to give them room to maneuver. From their perspectives, they saw a massive dust cloud of enemy tanks and IFVs arrayed into a wedge formation to charge into them.

Behind those vehicles, there were the numerous mobile AAA vehicles and light vehicles such as jeeps, trucks and further back there were howitzers to bombard the battlefield. To Hera's chagrin she saw that this force was supported by five more gigantic bronze statues of Talos with the mecha I-Rex marching with them towards the battlefield as the reserve force.

Seeing her presence behind the mechanized and vehicular forces Jr bowed his head looking straight at her body while making a glare. He didn't want to run this time. He heard Hera's voice clear at him chiming in with her own thoughts in mind. "No. I got her. You're going home to a loving wife in one piece. Maybe with a shattered heart and mind, but physically she'll still have you." Hera said.

Jr looked over at her. He wasn't sure he wanted to end the I-Rex himself, but the fact was part of his mind just occult shake the memories off. He looked back at the arriving Talos statues and simply nodded. "Fine. I'll take the bronze statues you'll take the bitch. But when im done tearing away statues don't expect me to stay out of the fight."Jr said stretching his neck out bending his neck. He swiped his arms down and to the dies slightly making his form more intimidating. He hunched over and readied the claws on each hand.

"Beastly. Living in the wild is definitely more suited for you. What next?" Hera asked while watching Jr's body language. She herself had gotten her whip out of her hand and simply cracked it in the air, one hand grabbing one part of her waist.

Shiryu's kids turned their heads to Jr hearing a rhythmic pulse coming from his back with each plate lighting up. Naturally he was readying for a fight. Readying himself and getting his adrenaline running and his stamina ready.

"I think uncle Jr is ready. How long before they arrive?" Zillaryu said as his tonfas swung forwards.

On their radio, Shiryu's kids heard Anubis voice giving them an ETA while looking at the incoming enemy forces from the tarmac of the airfield. "3 minutes. That's not counting possible hostile ATGMs. Be ready, as soon as they fire off their howitzers, pop those guns." He said gritting his teeth as he peered through the pair of binoculars at his foes.

As the advancing force came to a halt roughly 2.5km away from the airfield, they appeared to be forming up for an assault with the majority of them were simply using their MBTs to observe the area. Their gunships were prowling in the air flying towards the airfield to begin their skirmish.

But as they were coming close, the robot wolves proved themselves to be rather cunning as small 2-bot teams armed with FIM-92F Stinger Block II missiles fired off their ordinance at the gunships.

The gunships were caught off guard with the helo being squatted out of the sky almost in an instance. The surviving helos fired off their flares and began to bank hard to either sides or raise their altitudes to fly away. The Mi-48 Kajmann gunships were trying to return fire with their 30mm cannons only to be damaged in their engines and rotors. Forcing them to fly away from the airspace.

"CLU-07545 reporting, enemy gunships have been swept away, expecting additional enemy gunships to harass us in due time." One of the robots called out to Belisarius on their cyber coms while the Alpha of the robot wolfpack was observing the northern perimeter of the airfield. "Affirmative CLU-07545, good work restock the Stinger missiles and be ready to ration your ammunition." Said Belisarius. Soon enough, the overture of the howitzer orchestra begins.

The XM777 Piranha Howitzers quickly unpacked themselves and open fired on the perimeter and bombard the civilian airfields. Their HE shells leveled buildings, throwing robots flying around or forcing them to duck into the foxholes they've dug before as the barrage rained on them.

Belisarius was not contend to simply sit back and let the bombardment continues. He dialed the Rex Units and Hera to coordinate the defenses. "Hera, we need your help to silence those artilleries. Can you make a quick spoiling attack? Our forces can't handle themselves for long with the barrage." Said Belisarius in an urgent tone to Hera.

Hera hearing the order squinted her optics and looked at the horizon line. She nodded seeing where the artillery was coming from. "I have them. Smoke and heat in the distance. Oh kids do your aunt a favour and take out those howitzers." Hera asked with a polite tone.

Christine nodded and watched the artillery bombard the air base. "No question here. Lemme do it the best way." Christen said. Her mouth opened up with a blue colored hue from it of course came a blue beam of atomic energy that soared above the incoming enemy forces. Wind brushes past them, but the bulk of the breath struck the geral area of where the atteily was. It made a nice dust cloud complete with a little fire. The smoke though creating a signal of where the artillery was in a general location.

"There's more. The hostiles are still approaching. I can still hear some artillery." Zillaryu said. The enemies seems to be relentless. Or foolish some would have fled just with a single warning shot, or even strafe. Jr continued to intimidatingly pusle his dorsal plates while growling.

"What artillery? The small explosions i can hear in the background? You didn't get them all then." Jr looking at the background held ground awiting for the Talos statues.

With the Rex Units assaulting their positions in a surprise daring raid, the howitzers hastily packed up to move away or simply abandoned by the crew as they ran as fast as they could from the battle. "I didn't sign up for this! I didn't sign up to be Godzilla movie background characters!" One of them screamed out panicking as he ran as fast as he could from the battle.

The Talos statues in turn began to march towards the Rex Units and Jr as a response force to their raid. The statues rushed towards them swinging their swords and bashing their shields against the Rex Units, only to have Shiryu's kids blocked, dodged or parry with their tonfas.

Another going for Jr trying to aim the swing of its blade at Jr's head, only to be blocked by Zillaryu's tonfa holding the blade in place before he followed it up with his right tonfa lobbing off the statue's head. Jr then fired his atomic breath at the statue's torso pushing it back away from him before falling onto the ground, leveling the nearby town. The other bronze statues were busy with fighting his siblings when the mecha I-Rex was seen rushing with the main force towards the airfield.

As they dashed across the open field towards the airfield, the tanks began to run into anti tank landmines, these blew up under the pressure of the vehicles and tossed the tanks up in the air slightly. The vehicles were soon reduced to smouldering wrecks as their treads were dislodged and their ammo racks ruptured, followed by secondary explosions.

Some of the lighter and faster IFVs were able to dash around for some semblance of safeties only to run into the second layer of defense. They found themselves fallen victims to various potholes and deadly pits too wide for vehicles to cross over and fell into those. By this point their assault was being stalled by the sudden introduction of crafty ancient booby traps and spike pits, seeing the opportunity, the robots open fire on the vehicles.

Their ATGMs opened up and the robots fired their Javelin, Spike NLOS, or BGM-71F TOW missiles flying at the enemy vehicles. The Javelins were top attack munitions, like their namesake, they flew into the air before slamming down on tank tops devastating them in an instant.

The TOW missiles did a similar thing, only these have a wire in the air tracing back to the launcher. The operator just simply kept his cursor over the target and the missile terminated the target in an instant. More and more vehicles were poured into the boiling fire of combat as they were desperately trying to breakthrough the defensive perimeter.

The surviving tanks and IFVs then launched IR smoke grenades concealing themselves from the incoming missiles before returning fire with HE shells being lobbed from their turrets at the outer edge perimeters. The explosions kicked up dirt, debris and occasionally knocking robots flying. The IFVs began to open fire on the infantry foxholes with their autocannons, trying to pin down the enemy robots while Viper warriors were disembarking from their transports and began to rush forward to assault the robot positions.

The wolves in turn noticed the rushing humanoid soldiers with their ballistic masks, helmets and arachnid goggles supported by naga like warriors in space age chrome armor from head to tail. They quickly conduct their retreat to the second phase line by the buildings and fortification around the runway. They dug in and open fire their M240 GPMGs on their targets, forcing their enemies to dive for cover while many more dropped to the ground dead instantly.

The reserves of Vipers were pressed into the assault to keep the pressure up. A force of hapless militia and poorly led fat, overweight, poorly trained and equipped fighters pretending to be soldiers. As their trucks came towards the airfield they were suddenly fallen upon by highly accurate bombing run. In the air, they saw a pair of GDI marked A-10C Thunderbolt II tankbusters, also known as Warthogs.

The CAS strikes came down on the highway with their 30mm Avengers nose cannons strafing the trucks with Depleted Uranium rounds slicing through the trucks, jeeps and even tanks. What followed were a series of explosions and ruptured ammo cooking off inside of vehicles while enemy trucks were reduced to burning wrecks.

With the Warthog dispensed their bombs and payloads of AGMs on enemy vehicles and rear area support echelons, the Warthogs flew home to rearm themselves for a second run. Their position was soon filled by a quartet of AH-99 Blackfoot gunships tearing through infantry in exposed open terrains with their powerful 30mm electric powered turrets. Their HE shells cratered the ground and dug new foxholes while blasting enemy targets into pink mists and their remains splattered all over the place.

"Ground, this is Pegasus Actual. We just cleaned up y'all pos. Looks like them squirters are calling a quit. Over." Said the familiar voice of Earl Lupis as his gunship skirted around the battlefield, surveying the landscape spotting and blowing through enemy squads.

"Affirmative Pegasus Actual, shift fire North of Northeast, approximately 2 klicks. Target is an enemy FOB, light it up." Anubis directed Earl using the laser target designator to tag enemy targets and Earl was quick to see his new victims. "Got eyes on targets. Ready or not, here I come." Earl said excitedly as he flew in and fired off his gunship's AGMs at the enemy howitzers and tow artilleries in the FOB, blowing them along with their ammo supply up. The FOB in question was soon engulfed in a fiery orange ball of fire as Earl's gunship turned back to the airfield.

"Pegasus Actual to ground, we expended all ammo, request permission to land and rearm, over." Earl circled his helo around the airfield with his wingman following closely before hearing Anubis giving them the permission on the radio. "Affirmative Pegasus Actual, your squadron is cleared to refit. Be careful out there, hostile forces could still try sneak up on us. Over."

The gunships landed on the airfield's open ground and let themselves be refitted with additional AGMs and spent rockets and ammo belts for their turrets. They weren't the only reinforcements however, the C-17 Globemaster III and VTOLs arrived in the AO and began to unload their cargo of armored forces and mechanized infantry to engage their enemies.

The additional forces from the Chimera managed to strike fear into their desperate foes who were now crumbling and floundering under increasing pressure by the Rex Units, Jr and Hera fighting off their bronze statues, stomping their forces and even holding off the mecha I-Rex.

Hera herself was now fighting the Mecha I-Rex singlehandedly, a furious rematch after what happened in Tel-Aviv. The two mechanical titans tussled at each other, pushing back and forth with Hera cracking her whip in the air before lashing against the I-Rex then followed it up with a power dash punching the mecha I-Rex in the face, sending it stumbling backward.

"Oooooh, big sis Hera is pissed heh? Cool off and lay down babe." The mecha I-Rex taunted Hera as its shoulders unveiled their missile racks as she then fired off her swarm missiles at Hera. The purple female cyborg saw that the missiles had what appeared to be Absolute Zero free particle radiating from their tips and quickly fired off her atomic breath at the missiles, swatting them from the sky. But in the process she left herself a stationary target for the mecha I-Rex bull rush and pummel into her chest.

The mecha I-Rex then proceeded to plant its feet on Hera's chest, applying pressure on her chest cavity and armor with the mecha looking down at Hera's face with a sly grin. It grew larger with the intent being clearly to kill her or even worse. "Fuck you… bitch. You got me lying down here. But you forgot something." Hera broke a grin back at her nemesis as the mecha I-Rex felt its neck being grabbed by Jr's hands.

He yanked the war machine away from Hera with a vengeful fury, he slammed the mecha I-Rex head on the ground and stomped on its side, applying his body weight and pressure to pin it on the ground. He then grabbed its maws and pry it open, revealing the interior of the mecha I-Rex's mouth.

Its shiny chrome teeth, oral canon and the dry cold temperature within it radiating out. His dorsal plates flashed and charged up an atomic breath as he fired his atomic breath into the I-Rex mouth, blasting the interior apart, tearing through the metal and mechanical components setting its body on fire and tearing apart its cranial components.

He huffed out and tossed the twisted remains aside before helping Hera up to her feet. As she was getting up, Jr was seized by Hera's arms hugging and pulling him in for a playful kiss on his forehead. "Thanks handsome." She purred while rubbing her head against his neck and chin.

But while the battlefield was being cleaned up and the stragglers being hauled off to be processed as POWs, Anubis received a call from Set, tapping his right ear almost right away, he dialed to Set and picked up the call. "Son, I have my sights on the Viper's heads. They're in the Megiddo archaeological site. Looks like they're trying to access the inner sanctum of the city." Hearing this Anubis felt his body's muscles grow tense and he quickly leap off of the tarmac building, landing on the ground with a slam.

"On my way." He uttered before switching frequency to Belisarius. "Belisarius, you mop up the battlefield, I have a little something I need to handle at Megiddo." Anubis instructed before sprinting off towards Megiddo, he melted into dark mists and smoke and travel fast as the wind towards Megiddo.

[hr]

The lord of Dashure heaved his chest in breathing motion, he held his battle axe firm in hand, blood drenched and exhausted. The only thing that kept him fighting was his rage against the Vipers. And their leaders, Jasper and Casper were in front of him. They ditched the bizarre and often times unnecessarily ornate armor suits for more traditional armor and garbs. A golden scale segmented armor on their chest with dark light tan desert grabs and turbans to protect them from the desert heat. On their faces, they wore golden face mask.

"The lord of the Desert himself, the Devil and monstrosity of Egypt coming to face us? I thought we get along rather well seeing you are the patron of Foreigners in your own land." Casper taunted Set, pushing the emotional berserk button of the deity. And Set was showing signs of being driven to the edge when he heard himself being associated with foreigners.

"HOW. DARE. YOU. ASSOCIATE. ME! WITH. YOUR KIN!" Set roared out in fury, he dropped his battleaxe and summoned what appeared to be an aura of blood red sandstorm around him. His back grew spiky spines with six wings like thorns around him. He dashed forward on all fours before leaping towards Casper and Jasper. He pounced on them both, clawing them viciously before being kicked off by Casper, Jasper himself fired a grenade launcher at Set, the rounds detonated and sent Set flying.

Once Anubis arrived, he saw that his father was being thrown about by the grenades and quickly dashed in, he ducked behind cover and vaulted over low walls, running towards Set before dragging him into safeties behind a sandbag wall.

"Father, are you alright?" He asked Set before looking for possible wounds and damages on Set's body. "Bagh! Don't worry about it. Just a flesh wound, you distract those two clowns, I'll strike with my spawns." Set coughed out with Anubis nodded to him as the two then quickly sprung into action.

Anubis ran out and fired his Mummification bandages at the Mk19 Grenade Launcher turret that Jasper was using and yanked it away from him. He then slammed his scepter's hilt on the ground, summoning a portal of Grasping Hands to keep the Viper leader pinned in one place. Set in turn summoned two Spawns from the sand, he then ordered them to strike at Casper with a Skewer strike, marking him for his fury and relentless rage.

The Spawns clawed at Jasper who struck back by swinging his massive bludgeoning mace. Set used his teleportation power and emerge from one of the Spawns, with his axe in hand, he slashed Jasper from across his shoulder down to his waist before leaping behind him and decapitate Jasper's head. The head flew into the air before falling to the ground, with blood spilling out like a fountain from the neck of the headless body. Set then proceeded to strike at Casper.

But little did he know, Casper had a trick up his sleeve, once he broke away from the Grasping Hands, albeit with a loss of his pant's tube. He quickly grabbed what appeared to be round jars of glasses.

These were grenades that once tossed at Set, the glass jars shattered and unleashed corrosive acid on his robot armor plates, then Casper quickly lunged forward at Set thrust a blade into Set's stomach. Anubis upon seeing this gasped with his body petrified in fear. He saw with his own eyes his father injured and suffered a blade drove into his abdomen area.

There was no word for it, he ran forward to try and help a bleeding Set as Casper shoved Set at Anubis, pushing him back and being weighed down by Set's body. Anubis grunted and groaned as he struggled to push Set aside to fight Casper. The last living head of Viper was seen holding his blade in hand walking down to prepare and strike at Anubis as well.

That was until a sandstorm manifested itself around Megiddo, shielding the fortress from the outside world and from within the blinding sands, Casper paused in the middle of his walking and looked around at the storm. "What the hell is this? Who is doing this?" He was confused and perplexed by the sight as he held his sword in hand pointing it around the storm wall.

Soon enough he got his answer with the specter of Wepwawet appearing out of the sand and sprinted towards him, the specter hopped into the air and fired his arrows at Casper. Three arrows struck home with the specter landing on its feet before drawing its sword. A golden blade similar to the Conductor of Soul down to the canine head motif on the hilt.

Anubis saw the specter had his blade thrust up through Casper's chin heading up to his brains before uttering something eerily similar to what Anubis would speak to his kills. _"May the Hidden One drag you to the Afterlife. The maw of the Devourer awaits."_ Said Wepwawet in a vicious snarl and blood thirsty tone before disappearing as the storm dissipated.

Once the sky was cleared, Anubis found himself being helped up to his feet by Set's spawns, the two sand spawns aided him getting Set up as Anubis took his mummification bandage out and wrapped it around Set's abdomen and fastened it to prevent further blood lost. "Ugh… thank you, son. I'm sorry for never being your father." Set sighed out weakly as held his wound as the spawns helped him up to his feet and walked him down the stairs of Megiddo.

"I'll be fine, just a flesh wound… maybe it's best that you get in there and finish this." He instructed Anubis, to which the Jackal nodded to Set. "I'll have the medics on standby. Save your strength, father." Said Anubis as he then went inside the catacombs of Megiddo.

Far from being the usual tombs of Egyptian filled with treasures and personal belongings, spells and charms. The place was eerily quiet, empty with no writings or hieroglyphs to record Wepwawet's memories, but there wouldn't be any need for those when Anubis held the Apple of Eden in his hand searching for the burial chamber.

As Anubis walked through the large and empty corridors of the tomb, he saw the phantom of Wepwawet walking in front of him, but this phantom seems weak, frail and stumbling. He could barely hold himself standing upright anymore and could only walk with the aid of a walking cane. On his back he had his signature bow slung. Next to the phantom was another of a mortal, a local Canaanite apparently who followed Wepwawet aiding his walking.

 _"It is safe enough in Megiddo already. You should return to Egypt, your home and family. The people here can aid you." The mortal man pleaded to Wepwawet, who in turn looked at the mortal man with a tear droplet falling down his cheek. "David, you know why I can not return do you?" Wepwawet asked David who nodded to him. The elder deity wrapped his arms around David, placing his head against David's chest crying in silence. "Sometimes one has more than just rationale in their motivations. I failed them. I lost them, I shamed myself and they know. You live well David and I pray that you can avoid the pitfalls that I have fallen into."_

The phantom of Wepwawet disappeared leaving behind the sight of a double doors made of stone. The two appeared to have carvings of Ra sun disk and hawk motif on it, the coat of arms of Egypt. Anubis then placed his hand on the doors of the inner sanctum and his body was having its circuitry patterns light up in matching fashion before the doors finally opened revealing to him a circular chamber of burial. It was empty, save for what remains of Wepwawet, a dry corpse.

"No artifacts, no knowledge or wisdom, no love or family. Only you, alone in the dark." He commented sympathetically on the remains of the Opener of the Way. Once he came close enough, he knelt down inspecting the sitting corpse, seemingly lifeless and dry and yet in death it retained its regal form with its sitting pose.

Holding in its hands was a golden bow, no doubt Wepwawet's signature weapon in combat. It looked like Neith's bow only it was designed to be an ornate recurve bow with golden and black color scheme. On his right thigh, there was an arrow quiver pack allowing him to quickly access his arrows. Behind him however, Anubis saw a golden sarcophagus, not one for burial as it wasn't Egyptian in design.

Rather it seemed to have golden ornate carvings of two winged humanoids on either end of the lid facing each other with their wings reaching out to one another. "The Ark of the Covenant? Guarding this all alone?" Anubis asked perplexed as he pushed the lid aside, opening the Ark only to find an empty interior with the Heart of Wepwawet glowing gold weakly within it.

"Hollow symbol but powerful tool to the masses nonetheless." He realized and sniffed in sympathy, he picked up the Heart as it seemed to beat slowly in his hands then he looked down to Wepwawet's remains, it all seemed to make sense to him now. Holding the mystical relic in his hand and the heart of Wepwawet in another, Anubis triggered a phenomenon that shook and rumble the tomb. Under his feet the shadow rose and formed into a misty silhouette of a canine with two sharp ears, in the air float an orb of light. All of these elements along with the Apple of Eden levitated around the corpse of Wepwawet, and in the process the specter of Wepwawet appeared before Anubis with light grey fur on his body and golden veins on his skin. The deity's specter seems to have a long face of despair and regret.

"Welcome home... brother." Anubis uttered to the specter, to which Wepwawet nodded and visibly sniffled in regret. A tear droplet was seen running down on his cheek before falling to the floor as the two gave each other a hug, holding each other in a brotherly embrace before Wepwawet disappeared, for the dark Jackal, he knew where would Wepwawet go from here and made his rite. "May the Hidden One walk you to the Afterlife, the Lord of the Duat awaits." Said Anubis as he held up the bow of Wepwawet, the Golden Path, it was now his to bear, the legacy of Kemet's greatest warrior on his shoulder to uphold.


	18. Epilogue

Epilogue

They rested for hours, time flew by like the wind from morning to dusk they rested. The Kaiju resided peacefully by the open fields while the humans moved around them or buzzed over them in aerial vehicles. It felt odd for them to have so many humans casually walking and working around them but at the very least they had Shiryu's kids and Hera to accompanied them.

Eventually, they finally saw him exiting the tomb, Anubis emerged from the darkness of Megiddo's tomb entrance, in his hands, he cradled the corpse of Wepwawet clothed in the jackal deity's purple cape, leaving his robot body bare as he carried Wepwawet down to the airfield where his robots were waiting for him.

It was a somber moment, under the fading twilight of the day and the cold breeze of Megiddo, no one uttered a single word, no one dared to interrupt the moment. Once Anubis returned the airfield, Horus was there after reinforcements flooded in and secured the area, the Crown Prince took the corpse from Anubis' hands but not without a pale and petrified expression on his face.

Thoth was not far behind, he came to Horus side and slowly unwrapped the cape, seeing the dry and swollen face of Wepwawet gave the Ibis deity bone chilling disgust, he looked away and gently kept the wrappings up for Wepwawet's dignity. The ibis gestured with his thumb pointing towards the tent set up by the ruins of nearby structures, the tent in question had the rod of Ascelpius symbol of two snakes intertwining with a winged staff.

Without a word, Anubis knew that Thoth was implying who was waiting for him there and he handed Horus the corpse of Wepwawet, he leaned in on Horus' ears and whispered precise instructions to his younger sibling. The falcon Crown Prince nodded as he heeded the instructions, "So we are to secure an empty but coveted by many Ark of the Covenant?" He asked confused. Anubis nodded to Horus.

"Indeed. It's better no one here finds it. Than to have this land rip itself apart for a hollow symbol." the jackal stated, to which Horus nodded as he carried Wepwawet's corpse away. Thoth sighed out and gestured with his index finger several robots to follow him into Megiddo and secure their prize.

Anubis in turn, now empty handed returned to the medical tent where he found Set lying on a bed with other robots recovering from their combat wounds, the sustained damages were easy enough to repair but for Set, who suffered a stab directly into his abdomen required surgery to prevent fluid lost due to his robot body. Anubis was not deterred by the sight of carnage and automated surgery. The blue fluid from Set's abdomen was leaking out as the surgery arms disinfected and applied bandages to Set's wound.

"How are you holding up?" Anubis asked before sitting down next to Set. "Amaaaaaaazing.~" Set moaned out sarcastically before breaking a smile at Anubis. He couldn't move his arms for the time being as his body was still being locked down for repair. "I think you had something like that when you were cutting me up." Anubis remarked with a sigh while Set looked up at Anubis' face apparently having a moment of pride.

"There's no fun in taking from a weak foe. Even less so when you're doing it to your son." The lord of Dashure remarked maintaining his sarcastic tone, once the surgery was done with the armor plates being secured back in place, Set felt his arms and legs being able to move once again. The first thing he did was reaching up to Anubis head and pet his son's forehead, where the scar of Set's scythe was etched firmly in place. "I am proud of you my son. Not a pharaoh but a family man. Something I was not and squandered when I had the chance." Said Set in a more regretful tone as Anubis whimpered tiredly as he laid his chin and head down resting on Set's bed. The red typhon robot in turn moved to rub Anubis neck and placed him resting on Set's stomach.

"At least we'll be going home soon. All of us." Anubis yawned out, feeling sleepy and smiled innocently as he felt Set giving him love and affection that he had been missing for so long. "Us… and one missing member of our pantheon he has been away from his home for too long." Set sighed out profusely as he then reached out kissing Anubis' head for the first time. "Son I hate to ask but… I think I could use a bit of an aesthetic overhaul." Said Set as he looked down at his red robot armor and body design.

Anubis took notice of this and scratched his head finding it an odd request but one he was willing to consider. "Perhaps I could help with that. But I might overdo it… what overhaul do you need?" He asked Set, to which the deity scratched his head and snapped his neck. "Anything is better than the monster that torments you. The lord of Dashure style here just doesn't give me the best of appearance." Set scratched his head and lied down looking up at the ceiling of the tent.

"I'll think of something. Maybe it might not be the most appropriate but it would still work." Anubis remarked before giving his father a tender hug, Set in turn wrapped his hands around Anubis neck and shoulder keeping his head pressing up against Set's firm pectorals. "Good night my son." He uttered tenderly seeing the sight of Anubis being a mere color different version of Wepwawet, how the time has flown by and how he had changed, rendered infertile after Wepwawet's death.

[hr]

Lycopolis, Upper Egypt

The burial took place not far from the city, a tomb carved into the hillside caves with candles and hieroglyphic carvings being put in place as funerary customs of Egypt. The place had multiple chambers carved out to store his personal belongings gathered up for his burial. Food offerings were given to him in baskets and dinner plates before a realistic Roman made painting of Wepwawet's face.

His sarcophagus in turn was made of gold with hieroglyphic carvings around and on it. Spells and charms were casted for protection of his journey in the Afterlife. The effort was as extravagant as a King but the practitioners knew that the effort was worth the trouble so Wepwawet might not fall victim to whatever that lurk in the shadows of the Afterlife.

Anubis stood before the Sarcophagus, one he painfully crafted with the finest undertaker of Egypt, the ornate and decorations completed with burial mask gave him a moment of reprieve as he finally exited the tomb. He headed down the footpath before finally coming up upon the sight of familiar faces.

His horse Ramiel stood patiently, waiting for his master to ride him back to their capital of Alexandria, next to Ramiel was an equine like robot. One with silver chrome armor plates over black synthetic and latex coverings of his body and limbs. The robot was holding Ramiel's reins in its hands but Ramiel couldn't help but notice the strange robot's mane, tail and horn.

"How is the ummm… aesthetic overhaul doing for you?" Anubis asked awkwardly to...Set. He wasn't sure how to explain the idea's concept himself and even less still to how Set and Egyptian in general would take this. "Amaaaazing." Set replied, he didn't sound like he was fazed by the changes. He sounded rather upbeat instead for the first time in his life as far as Anubis could tell. "Wow, you're talented son. I didn't know you have the touch of craftsmanship like Ptah." Said Set as he patted Anubis back while the son smiled to his father before climbing on Ramiel's back.

Set at this point could be best described as a robot unicorn, one with glowing and flashy horn, mane and tail, on his wrists were glowing rainbow bracelets while on his back, his laser epsilon axe was mounted with a magnetic hook. "Well done indeed son. Next thing you need to do is take care of Ramiel there. He's been dying to have you back." Said Set with a chuckle pointing at the face of Anubis' dark stallion. "Perhaps, I think I have been neglecting Ramiel quite a bit. Come on let's go home." Set nodded to his son as they proceeded to return northward to Alexandria, leaving the sand of Egypt to blow by Asyut.

The End


End file.
